T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, was a British archaeologist, military officer, and author known for his leadership in the Middle East during World War I.
He also published a memoir about his time in the Middle East that became immensely popular in later decades, titled “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.”
What some people don’t know is that T.E. Lawrence lost his original manuscript of “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” in December 1919 while changing trains at Reading railway station. The manuscript, nearly 250,000 words long, was inside a briefcase he accidentally misplaced during the transfer.
After the incident, Lawrence was determined to persevere and set about rewriting the entire book from memory, eventually producing a more extended version and continuing to revise it throughout the early 1920s.
His final version is the book we know today.
But imagine he didn’t rewrite it? Imagine not doing something because the original progress seemed all but lost, not realizing that the progress was always in you.
Lawrence wrote again, recalling the crucial moments of his memoir that stuck with him and omitting everything else.
His book turned out much better than the original as a result.