feats of focus: micro-sculptor willard wigan

Today I’d like to introduce the first installment of what I hope becomes a regular feature, Feats of Focus. From time to time I will be sharing stories from people who have accomplished amazing things through their ability to focus.

My first subject does something that sounds so fantastical and so impossible that I could hardly believe it to be true. Willard Wigan is what is known as a micro-sculptor. While most sculptors use solid pieces of stone or metal to fashion their art, Willard is more comfortable using fibers from his sweater, the hair off of flies, and the little bits of dust you see floating around when the sunlight comes through a window. You won’t see his sculptures in the front of buildings. Instead, try looking on the top of a pinhead or within the eye of a needle.

Willard takes up to 8 weeks sometimes to create a piece. As you can imagine, the personal sacrifice involved when working at such a minute level is extraordinary. He has learned how to slow down his heartbeat and to only work in between beats. The movement of his fingers due to circulating blood is enough to ruin weeks of work in an instant. He commonly works through the dead of night as there is less noise from traffic which allows him to enter the highly focused state required to do his work. On at least one occasion Willard has even accidentally inhaled one of his own partially completed sculptures!

Willard suffered from learning problems and dyslexia as a child. He was bullied at school so he retreated into a fantasy world of microscopic proportions. His first micro-sculptures were houses and equipment for the ants in his backyard. As he got older, he kept creating smaller and smaller pieces. Now, some of his most recent works do not exceed the size of a human blood cell.

You may not be a micro-sculptor or possess the surgeon-like steady hand of Willard Wigan. However, I think there are lessons to be drawn from this incredible talent:

1. The beauty is in the detail: How much detail do you put into the work you create? Willard paints all of his sculptures (often using the hair of a dead fly or the fuzz of his own face as a paintbrush). I’m quite guilty of often overlooking the details in my own work in my rush to publish articles. Taking the time to finalize and polish the details can be what makes you stand out from the crowd.

2. Focus makes anything possible: Willard spends hours at a time hunched over a microscope creating his sculptures with his own homemade and handheld tools. He doesn’t check Twitter, watch T.V., or talk to his friends while he does it. He has dedicated himself to his art– have you? If you saw Willard at work, you would know this is a man who treats his profession with the utmost respect. What would somebody think if they saw you work? Focusing on whatever you do is paramount to doing it well.

3. Do something different: Willard isn’t doing something that people have already done. In fact, if somebody had told me that a guy could sculpt a recognizable Obama family in the eye of a needle without using robots or extreme technology I would have called them crazy. Try doing something you haven’t seen others do yet and you might just be surprised how readily possible it is to do it.

Willard Wigan is a man who has learned to hone his focus into laser-like efficiency. What have you done lately to sharpen your own ability to focus?

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