Success story: Female astronaut Megan McArthur on final Hubble service mission

August 29, 2009

Megan McArthur

This is a brief story of Megan McArthur’s journey to space this year.

Born in 1971 and graduating with a B.S. Aerospace Engineering, University of California-Los Angeles, 1993 and Ph.D., Oceanography, University of California-San Diego, 2002, it was a chance meeting in college with astronaut Kathryn Sullivan – the first US woman to do a space walk – that helped Megan McArthur decide exactly what she would do for a career.

Fast forward to May this year and Megan McArthur was in space helping to service the Hubble telescope, which was launched by Kathryn Sullivan.

After a career in science as an oceanographer, Megan McArthur joined NASA nine years ago. She started training in 2007 for 1½ years specifically for her first space mission. Its purpose was to service the 19-year-old Hubble telescope for a fifth and final time. She spent 12 days and 21 hours in space in May, performing the roles of flight engineer and mission specialist where she operated the robotic arm that secured the telescope for servicing.

She is one of 20 active women on NASA’s roster, along with 60 men. Her aim next is to go to the International Space Station. For now, though, she promotes science among her other work with NASA. She has been to Australia this month to promote National Science Week.

Sources:

WA today (Australia)

NASA Mega McArthur Bio

Written by SuccessMotivational.com · Filed Under Career, Celebrity success, Science 

Inspirational celebrity story: Soulja Boy tells ‘em who knows best

August 25, 2009

Soulja Boy - Photo: musicremedy.com, movideo.com, more

Soulja Boy

Soulja Boy was just 16 when he bypassed the usual clueless record companies to go straight to his market. He launched his music on SoundClick.com and soon saw some tracks being downloaded up to 35,000 times a day. Listeners loved his music and asked him to create a MySpace site, which he did in 2005.

The attention he gained there landed him a record deal and he then used YouTube to really launch his career with dance videos in addition to his music. His market was still a teen and young adult one and, because he did not have a “bad boy” image, YouTube was just the place for him (plenty of teenagers go there daily).

One of the ways in which he kept a good image was through his lyrics. In one interview this year, he told the ladies of The View that he chose to refrain from swearing in his earlier music because it would set a bad example to other young teenagers. So, parents did not have to worry about their teen children watching him in online video clips. The only influencing he was doing was all good; from his clothing styles to his dance moves.

His story has been one of the rising number of artists using social media to derive an income from digital revenue sources. He now uses a regular record company to promote his music. His efforts saw him spend many weeks on the Billboards Hot 100 singles chart and earned him a Grammy nomination in 2008. Now, of course, record labels are trying to ensure that they can take a piece of the artist’s digital revenue for themselves in addition to revenue from CDs they promote. And all because a kid from Memphis saw the huge potential in social media.

What was one of his keys to success, apart from clean lyrics? In a biography on Pop Tower, he tells a story of his composition book with all his goals outlined for the near future when he was in school. A kid found the book an read it loud and laughed. One year on and all those goals had come true. It is the age-old story: always write down your goals and work toward them.

2009 has continued to be a big year for him and he just turned 19 late last month. What a great story of how an enterprising kid took advantage of Web 2.0!

Links:

Souljaboytellem.com

Soulja Boy Tell ‘em MySpace

Sources:

Social Times

Soulja Boy Tell ‘em Biography on Pop Tower

Written by SuccessMotivational.com · Filed Under Career, Celebrity success, Music 

Success story: Lance Armstrong fought cancer and went on to win the Tour de France 7 times

August 18, 2009

Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was a successful professional cyclist in the 1990s. He had won The World Cycling Championship and the US National Road Race Championship. Then disaster struck in October 1996. He was told by his doctor that he had testicular cancer that had spread to his abdomen, lungs, and brain.

He was given a 50 percent chance of survival and had surgery to remove his right testicle and brain lesions, followed by three months of chemotherapy. Armstrong was declared cancer-free in 1997. He then began his cycling comeback in May 1998.

Lance competed in the Tour de France 1999 and won it for 7 years straight after that before retiring temporarily from cycling. He had already started The Lance Armstrong Foundation and the LiveStrong awareness campaign started to take off in different countries much more during his “retirement”.

He came out of retirement this year and has successfully competed in races in several countries. It has sparked an interest among amateur cyclists who are becoming racers now. It is one of the great inspirational stories of a champion in his sport and personal life.

Link:

LiveStrong

Sources:

Cancer.org
Bestinspirationalquotes4u.com

Written by SuccessMotivational.com · Filed Under Career, Celebrity success, Health 

Success story: Danica Patrick the first female to win an IndyCar race in 2008

August 10, 2009

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick

If you are a female in any sport and want proof that a woman can beat the guys then look no further than Danica Patrick’s IndyCar race win last year for inspiration. This takes a look back at what led to this win.
Read more

Written by SuccessMotivational.com · Filed Under Career, Celebrity success