In the early 1900s, when cameras were first invented, they were astonishingly expensive, often costing as much as an entire year’s salary. Only professional photographers, typically by taking out loans, could afford such a luxury.
A group of Japanese innovators saw one of these early cameras and asked a simple yet profound question: why should a plastic box with a few wires cost thousands of dollars? Driven by curiosity, they took it apart to understand how it worked. Their goal: to replicate it—better yet, to improve it.
They assumed it would take a few months. It took years.
Eventually, they succeeded. Their first camera wasn’t perfect, but it worked. They called it Kwanon. It wasn’t the most refined device on the market, but people liked it. It did the job. Over time, the name was changed to Canon. And by 2010, they had produced their 40 millionth camera.
What they did is known as reverse engineering: studying a successful product, breaking it down to understand its components, and then recreating it, sometimes even better than the original.
And that’s exactly what Avraham, our forefather, did.
Avraham lived long before the Torah was formally given. There was no Jewish people yet, no commandments, no instruction manual. But Avraham looked at the world, and—like those engineers—he studied it deeply. He “reverse engineered” reality.
Our Sages teach that Hashem looked into the Torah and created the world from it. The Torah was the blueprint. So Avraham, looking at the world and all its details, was able to deduce the Torah itself. He kept all the mitzvos before they were ever given (Yoma 28b) because he understood the underlying design by examining the finished product: creation.
Reverse engineering.
Often, we look at successful people and assume they were always successful because they were born with it. But that’s rarely true. Many began with nothing. The key is: success leaves clues.
If you find someone thriving—in business, in character, in spirituality—you can study their actions, trace their habits, and emulate their process. You can reverse engineer greatness.
Just like Canon. If you see something valuable, take the time to understand how it works. Break it down. Rebuild it.
The path to mastery isn’t always about invention. It’s often about observation, analysis, and application.
So go for it.
