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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 that he would find a good one. He belief could be summarized by his statement: "Many of life's failure are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

Probably the most notable display of Edison's positive attitude can be seen in the way he approached a tragedy that occurred when he was in his late sixties. The lab he had built in West Orange, New Jersey, was famous. He called the fourteen-building complex his invention factory. Its main building was massive-greater than three football fields in size. From the base of operations,he and his staff conceived of inventions, developed prototypes, manufactured products, and shipped them to customers. It became a model for modern research and manufacturing.

Edison love the place....But on a December day in 1914, his beloved lab caught fire. As he stood outside and watched it burn, he is reported to have said: "Kids, go get your mother. She'll never see another fire like this one."

Most people would had been crushed. But not Edison. "I am 67," he said after the tragedy, "But not too old to make a fresh start. I've been through a lot of things like this." He rebuild the lab, and he kept working for another 17 years. "I am long on ideas, but short on time,"  he commented. "I expect to live to be only about a hundred." He died at 84.

If Edison hadn't been such a positive person, he never would have achieved such success as an inventor. If you look at the lives of people in any profession who achieve lasting success, you will find that they almost always possess a positive outlook on life

Taken from SUCCESS one day AT A TIME
John C. Maxwell

Write: White Autumn     09.01.2013     11.37pm