Another example of creative success was the founding of one of the most splendid cities in the world. Its beginning in 451 A.D. was indeed humble. A group of refugees from Attilla the Hun found themselves stranded at a watery lagoon with nowhere else to go. They built their dwellings on stumps of wood.

The location was at the estuary of the River Po, where Venice now stands, supported largely by submerged timber. Taking advantage of the strategic yet uninhabitable location, the citizens turned misfortune to advantage, prospered and within several hundred years, came to dominate trade between the Orient and Europe. As fate would have it, their dominance would be undermined by the very ingenuity that gave rise to their success.