Learjet family’s daughter to speak at Bird Museum

By Reader Staff

For Shanda Lear-Baylor, inspiration isn’t something that comes from inside the brain.

That conclusion is not just based on her life but her family’s as well.  In her 55 minute multi-media show “The Secrets to the Success of Moya and Bill Lear…. And the Learjet,” Shanda Lear, their daughter, outlines with songs, humor and insight, the principles of problem solving used by her famous family that are easy to understand and apply by anyone.

Shanda Lear Baylor.

Shanda Lear is a Renaissance Woman: a business woman, author, entertainer, big band singer, teacher, International Board Certified Lactation consultant and metaphysician. She shares what she learned from her famous parents with pictures, video of Lear Jets, songs from the era, inspiring and funny stories of  how they used the technology of “mental engineering” to solve problems. Like her father, her knack for invention and problem solving—together with the brilliance of the design and engineering of her husband Terry Baylor, lead to the development of the retractable hardtop for boats and the establishment of she and her husband collaborated their talents to establish the Lear Electric Boats company: www.lear-electric-boats.com.

Despite her and her fathers’ accomplishments, she doesn’t take credit for the ideas they turned into flourishing businesses. Rather, they followed their personal passions and looked to a higher source for the answers. It’s all part of a presentation Lear-Baylor plans to give to the Inventors Association of Idaho 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 1 at the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in Sagle.

“If you have an idea—the way you know it is a good one and has come from a higher source to bless mankind is not to ask people if it is a “good” idea,” Lear-Baylor said just ask, “If they pitch in to help, you know the idea is from that higher source.”

According to Lear, her father wasn’t born into a life that seemed to promise great success. The son of an abusive, alcoholic mother, Lear’s only refuge was the Public Library. There his escapes were books on electricity and radio and telegraph communications. By the time he got to high school, he knew more than the teachers, dropped out after six weeks, lied about his age and joined the Navy, where he taught sailors everything he knew about the radio.   While he had raw talents as young man, Lear-Baylor said he didn’t harness them until reading “The Secret of the Ages” by Robert Collier, which teaches that true creativity comes from a universal consciousness.

“Was he a genius? No,” said Lear-Baylor. “What he had was a burning desire to overcome obstacles.”

Time has proven the Lear Corporation’s strength as a business, and Lear-Baylor sees his life as proof of the power of “mental engineering:” turning from victim thinking to lucrative vision.

“I always tell [people], if you think of yourself as a victim, a nobody, you will be a victim and a nobody,” she said. “Then I share with them the proven technology to “see” and experience joy and abundance in their lives. What you see in your ‘mind’s eye’ … is what you get.”

While Lear-Baylor’s presentation should be a good fit for North Idaho inventors—no doubt kindred souls for a woman from a family of entrepreneurs—she said the concepts in her talk are applicable for anyone. You just have to know you have a right to solve whatever problem presents itself to you. The key is having a burning desire to get it done.

She recalls one young man who, stuck at a miserable desk job, confided in her his love for coaching baseball. Following her advice, he found a path to follow his passion, joining the Peace Corps and teaching the sport overseas. It paved the way for an entire career.

For Pamela Riddle Bird, co-founder of the Bird Museum with recently-deceased inventor and aviator Forrest M. Bird, Lear-Baylor’s visit is an exciting event, and one that showcases the museum’s continued commitment to inspiring and motivating creative and scientific minds. It’s just one part of the legacy Bird leaves behind for the community.

“The foundation and footprints have been left by him to carry on,” Pam Bird said. “We’ll push harder and stronger to continue his legacy for generations to come.”