There are life lessons to be learned from William Kamkwamba, which are highlighted in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Here are my top five:

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a movie based on William Kamkwamba’s life in Africa and how he saved his village. After just barelybeing able to go to school, the dry season hits, leaving his parents poor and their farm dead. Even though he technically still isn’t supposed to be at school, William sneaks in after the morning assembly as to go by unnoticed. He did this because he was inspired by the dynamo on his teacher’s bike. Eventually, he was discovered and kicked out of the school, but since his sister was secretly dating his teacher, William essentially blackmailed him into letting him use the library. Later, he makes a model windmill, and after a lot of persuasion, he got his father to sacrifice his bike so that he could make a larger windmill. This windmill fuels a well and keeps his family farm out of the dry season all year.

Stay Curious and Never Stop Learning

The first important lesson is to always stay curious. Curiosity is the first step in making a change. Similarly, we should never stop learning. We can all be curious about a subject, but what would be the point if we don’t continue learning about it? (An example could be retail stores running out of business because they didn’t play the online game quick enough)

Research

In William’s case, he researched how dynamos and windmills work before he tried to get hands on with them. Had he not done that, he would have been at risk of breaking the dynamo.

It’s SUPER IMPORTANT to have research done before you plunge yourself into a project. You may have a slight idea on how to do a project, but it would be useless if you don’t apply the right ideas in the right places.

Start Small

William built a much smaller windmill first, to see if it worked. Yes, there is a reason why people make models before they make the bigger project. And it’s not just for decoration. By starting small, you get practice with the subject, and you can learn from any mistakes you may have made in the process. Making a model also serves as a visual aid that helps a lot when it comes to persuasion. (I’ll believe it when I see it)

Practice Leadership and Persuasion

William not only had to convince himself that the windmill would work, but he also had to persuade his father and the rest of his village. If William didn’t have the skill of persuasion, his father would never have let him use his bike. And he would have never persuaded his sister to convince his teacher to give him the dynamo.

Share your vision

William met with other kids in his village to share his vision of providing water by building a windmill. These kids were inspired. They basically ganged up on William’s dad to try to get him to give William the bike. He also shared his vision with his librarian, who showed him the books on windmills/generating electricity.

Have you seen or read The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind? If so, what are your key takeaways?

This article was originally published on Medium.