Inspiring Personalities Series - 1

Thomas Alva Edison - Less known facts

The most famous response from Edison was when a reporter asked, him about the number of times he had failed when trying to invent the incandescent light bulb -

Image source

The above quote attributed to Edison has been doing the rounds on the internet & social media with variations. The other variations describe him as having failed from 2000 to 10000 times:

"I didn’t fail 2000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 2000 steps."

The exact number of failures is not relevant here nor are his exact words. The lesson we can learn is that success & failure are a matter of perspective. And as they say - our attitude determines our altitude!

As Edison believed an electric light was possible, he refused to give up. He tried countless types of material in his search for a filament that would work. He sent men to China, Japan, South America, Asia, Jamaica, Ceylon and Burma to search for fibers to test in his laboratory--all to no avail.

On October 21, 1879, after thirteen months of repeated failures, Edison finally succeeded in finding a filament that would work. While experimenting the thought came to him, "Why not try a carbonized cotton fibre?

And that was the story behind the man who literally lit up the world!

But did you know this about Thomas Edison?

1. His teachers considered young Edison a failure, and his mother soon decided to homeschool him.
2. Edison, a relentless inventor, accumulated 1,093 U.S. patents. Few inventors have even half as many.
3. He developed hearing problems at an early age. Among other reasons, his deafness was attributed to a bout of scarlet fever.
4. As a youngster he sold candy and newspapers on trains running from Port Huron to Detroit, and sold vegetables.
5. He briefly worked as a telegraph operator in 1863 for the Grand Trunk Railway at Stratford, Ontario railway at age 16.

At moments of trial & despair, let us take inspiration from the perseverance of this great man.