Long On Ideas Life magazine named him the number one man of the millennium. The number of things he invented is astounding(1093). He held more patents than any other person in the world, having been granted at least one patent every year for 65 consecutive years. His name was Thomas Edison. Most people credit Edison's ability to creative genius. He credited it to hard work. "Genius," he declared," is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration." I believe his success was also the result of third factor: his positive attitude. Edison was an optimist who saw the best in everything. "If we did all the things we were capable of doing," he once said, "we would literally astound ourselves. "When it took him ten thousand tries to find the right materials for the incandescent light bulb, he didn't see them as that many failures. With each attempt he gained information about what didn't work, bringing him closer to solution. He never doubted tha...