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-Paula

Was Columbus a success?

"Success does not always go along with merit: America is not named after Columbus."


-Sigmund Freud


I disagree with Freud- the fact that America is not named after Columbus has less to do with the relationship between merit and success, and more to do with how we define success.   


We'll set aside for the moment the arguments aboutwhether Columbus actually "discovered" anything (of course people who already lived here knew it was here all along!)  And there is the embarrassing but enduring faux-pas of calling the natives "Indians" thinking that he had reached India. There's also the question of whether the  continent would have been better off left alone, but we'll set that aside too. 

(Drawing - Encounter by Octavio Ocampo)

America, in case you've forgotten your middle-school history, was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine who explored Venezuela years after Columbus reached the continent.  The misnomer happened when a German mapmaker published a map with incorrect information.  Karma, perhaps, for Columbus' misnaming the "Indians?" 

Anyway, back to my question:

Was Columbus successful?   Here are the facts:

• He created a plan, and executed it almost entirely with Other People's Money (OPM) - Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain bankrolled the entire affair.  This was a huge feat of salesmanship!   
  
• He executed (and collected on) one of the largest contracts on record in his time - 10% of all spices, gold and other riches found. 
  
• He was prepared to endure great physical hardship and risk to achieve his goals. 
  
• He overcame substantial opposition to his ideas. People had laughed at his plan to sail perpendicular to the coast, which had never been done before. 
  
• He proved his skill as a navigator and mapmaker. He left a legacy of maps, journals and writings that were the benchmark of cartography for years. 
  
• He proved the concept that the world is round. 
  
• He (and his family in perpetuity) were awarded nobility in Europe.  He was conferred the title of "Don and High Admiral of the Ocean Sea."
  

Columbus never stated in his writings that he intended to have the continent named after him. We assume that he thought he would find more gold, spices, and silks and other wealth as measured by the standards of the time, since he thought he would establish a shorter trade route to the Orient.  So that didn't work out the way he had planned. 

So, I would say that he was a huge success, but in a way that was more and less than what he had planned.   Isn't it the same with everyone?   Our greatest plans and efforts almost always lead us somewhere worthwhile, but not always where we think we wanted to go. 

-Paula