Failure is Your Friend: The Genius of Thomas Edison

In The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking, I wrote a chapter on famous failures, highlighting one of my first virtual mentors, Thomas Edison. Ranked #1 in Life Magazine’s hundred people who made the millenium, Edison wasn’t just a visionary inventor with over a thousand patents. He was the founder of fourteen companies, including General Electric. He was, in every sense of the word, an entrepreneurial thinker.

Case in point, Edison didn’t invent the light bulb. He made it long lasting. He didn’t invent marketing but he understood the importance of solving a need, then branding a solution. He was equally famous for quotes on perseverance:

“I have not failed. I have discovered 10,000 ways that wo’t work.”

I realized from Edison there were few people who didn’t FAIL BIG before achieving success. I was no exception. The memoir portion of my book chronicles what I did right and what I learned the hard way. But there’s a difference between those who fail and those who learn from experience. That was the true genius of Edison.

Ready … Set … Whoops?

Im high school, I failed a chemistry exam and a friend called me “Edison!” Knowing nothing about the coy reference, I made a trek to the library. I soon learned that Edison was the youngest of seven children who didn’t learn to speak until he was almost four. He was also a hyper and inquisitive kid like me, and so disruptive, that an early teacher told his mother he was too stupid to learn anything. Confident in his abilities, she opted for home-schooling. I soon embraced this kindred spirit and fellow trouble maker as a mentor.

Fail » Learn » Try again.

Learning from failure is what I gained most from Edison but it was his back story that enabled me to understand his true grit. After all, Edison was not only considered dumb and dyslexic at an early age, he was technically deaf by his teenage years. How was he able to create groundbreaking research in sound recordings with a learning challenge and hearing impairment? Turns out he used a piece of wood between his teeth to listen to vibrations. Genius!

“Deafness has its advantages.

My own deafness enables me to concentrate my thoughts

as I’d never be able to do if distracted by noise and conversation.”

His limitations clearly became his greatest assets. Insight to Edison legacies such as the phonograph, electric automobile, and long-lasting light bulbs, can easily be found through the Edison Innovation Foundation or the vast museum that houses his personal letters and company records. In fact, from his factory of workers, thousands of notebooks were discovered, documenting everything from inventions and business theories to marketing ideas. And at the core, from Edison’s own words, we find a system of intelligent failure and resolve.

 

“To invent, you need a pile of junk. Hell, there are no rules here … we’re trying to invent something.”

 

Edison was even known to dance when experiments failed, working well into the night with teams who shared his passion. We see the same principles in highly successful innovation cultures who compete in the 21st century — they must be willing to not only fail, but reinvent themselves on occasion as entrepreneurial thinkers and marketeers.

Whether you’re a student, creative artist, tech wizard, small biz guru or global leader, the Edison model proves that failures can be groundbreaking. You simply have to believe first that failure is your friend.

Footnote: I recently met Edison Innovation Foundation, Chairman John Keegs, who shared the latest book on Edison and amazing history of archives at the museum collections of Thomas Edison National Historic Park in West Orange New Jersey. If you’re an Edison fan, you have to go! The tour includes his residence and your entrepreneurial mind will thank you!

This blog is from a chapter in The 4 Essentials of Entrepreneurial Thinking

Essential 1, Skill 7 – Never Quit – Failure is Your Friend (see also blog on Abraham Lincoln)

The post Failure is Your Friend: The Genius of Thomas Edison appeared first on Cliff Michaels Academy.