A friend of mine once gave me a thousand-piece puzzle. It was a beautiful picture on the box, an ocean sunset with waves crashing against the rocks. Excited, I poured the pieces onto the table and started working. 

At first, it was fun. Fitting the edges and finding the bright colors of the sky. But as the hours passed, frustration crept in. Some pieces didn’t seem to fit anywhere. Others looked like they belonged but were just a little off. After a while, I was tempted to give up. It felt like a mess, and I couldn’t see how it would ever come together.

Days later, I returned to the puzzle, unwilling to just walk away without seeing the beauty of the end product.

Slowly, piece by piece, it started to take shape. What once felt like random, useless pieces were actually critical parts of the most beautiful sections. 

Bethany Hamilton was a rising star in the world of surfing. Born and raised in Hawaii, she showed exceptional talent from a young age, winning her first surf competition at just eight years old. Her dream was to become a professional surfer, but a life-changing event tested her determination.

At the age of 13, while surfing off Kauai’s North Shore, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark. She lost her entire left arm in the attack, a devastating blow to anyone, let alone someone whose life revolved around surfing. Doctors told her that her surfing career was likely over. Most people would have given up on their dream in the face of such adversity.

But not Bethany.

Just one month after the attack, she was back in the water, determined to relearn how to surf with one arm. She faced immense physical and emotional challenges, including balancing on the board, paddling with one arm, and overcoming the fear of another shark attack. Despite these obstacles, she refused to give up. Through relentless practice and innovation, she adapted her surfing style and worked tirelessly to improve.

In less than two years, Bethany achieved what many thought was impossible. She won her first national surfing title, proving that persistence, grit, and determination could overcome even the most daunting setbacks. Today, she is not only a professional surfer but also an inspirational speaker, author, and advocate, inspiring millions with her story of resilience.

How many light bulbs have you had to change in your lifetime? In today’s world, LED light bulbs will only have to be replaced, on average, every 20 years or so. Yet, until just recently, it was commonplace to have to replace the light bulbs in our lamps and fixtures every several months, depending on usage.

In sharp contrast, shining brightly beyond the expectations of any modern bulb, the Centennial Light Bulb has been faithfully casting light for the Livermore Fire Department for over 120 years without burning out.

A website dedicated to the Centennial Bulb reports,

[It was] first installed at the fire department hose cart house on L Street in 1901. Shortly after it moved to the main firehouse on Second. In 1903 it was moved to the new Station 1 on First and McLeod, and survived the renovation of the Firehouse in 1937, when it was off for about a week. During its first 75 years it was connected directly to the 110 Volt city power, (subject to the power outages), and not to the back-up generator for fear of a power surge. In 1976 it was moved with a full police and fire truck escort, under the watch of Captain Kirby Slate, to its present site at Fire Station 6, 4550 East Ave., Livermore, California. It was then hooked to a separate power source at 120V, and UPS according to Frank Maul, Retired City Electrician. There was one interruption in May, 2013, when the UPS failed and it was off for at least 9 1/2 hours.

People are drawn to the light. They come from far and wide to see it burning, and a “bulb cam” was even installed for online viewing.

It seems that light bulbs were invented, from the beginning, with he capacity for great longevity. And while Thomas Edison et al invented the rudimentary bulb, it was the work of Professor Adolphe A. Chaillet and the Shelby Electric Company who invented and developed the improved filament that allowed for seemingly perpetual illumination.

So why has this one bulb lasted decades beyond even our most efficient, modern fixtures? The answer is “Planned Obsolescence.” You see, providing a bulb with seemingly perpetual illumination is not necessarily a profitable venture.

According to various dictionaries, “Planned Obsolescence” can be defined as “a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete and so require replacing, achieved by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of nondurable materials.”

Enter the Phoebus Cartel. 

The Phoebus Cartel was a cartel that existed to control the manufacture and sale of incandescent light bulbs by appropriating market territories and fixing the useful life of such bulbs. … The cartel included manufacturers Osram, General Electric, Associated Electrical Industries, and Philips, among others. … [By] 1924, the main bulb manufacturers in America and Europe secretly formed a cartel to limit the average life of lamps to 1,000 hours,” thus ensuring the re-marketability of the product (though it's no longer legal to do so, at least not here in the U.S.).

So while Edison’s original commercial lightbulb from 1881 lasted up to 1500 hours, others began marketing bulbs that lasted nearly double that. Then, by the turn of the new century, Challet’s bulb was lasting for … well … it continues to burn today. Where’s the profit in that?! You’d never need to buy another bulb in your lifetime!

But even with the introduction of LED bulbs, we’re still not seeing the mass production of bulbs with the durability and longevity of the Livermore Fire Department’s Centennial Bulb.