An Incredible Success Story

How Did Thomas Edison Succeed?

Born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio to middle-class parents, Thomas "Al" Edison surprisingly did not speak until he was four years of age.  But once he did begin to talk, he persistently asked anyone he could endless questions about how anything he encountered worked.

At an early age his mother recognized his insatiable appetite for knowledge and began to educate him at home.  With this and his discovery of the public library, he began to learn as much as possible about the world and the things the make it run by reading every book he could.

He was a rare child in that his thirst for knowledge seemed to be inborn to him.  He soon exceeded the ability of his parents to teach him and they hired tutors to assist him with concepts such as physics and mathematics.

In studying Sir Isaac Newton's works, Edison embraced and absorbed the principles, but was dissatisfied with the manner in which it was presented, concluding that even the greatest minds have certain attitudes that prevent them from properly seeing the errors of their ways.

This encouraged him to adopt his own philosophy of learning through observation and experimentation.  His formal education was minimal at best, but this was never a problem for him since he used all available resources, his exceptionally keen mind and legendary powers of recall to more than compensate.

At the age of only twelve, he started his own business selling vegetables while being involved in several other ventures.

One of these was publishing and distributing campaign literature for Abraham Lincoln, for which he received more than a respectable amount of income.  He used this money to set up a chemical laboratory in his parent's house, which they were not entirely pleased with.

Whether it was because of being struck on the side of the head by a train conductor or contracting scarlet fever at the age of fourteen, Edison's hearing ability was almost completely eliminated.

Although entirely deaf in one ear and having only partial ability in the other, he simply accepted it as another challenge and found other methods of learning what he needed to know.

When presented with an opportunity to undergo an operation to correct his hearing loss, he replied "I would have difficulty re-learning how to channel my thinking in a noisy world."

His only regret was that he was unable to hear the sound of birds singing their songs, but even in response to this he later built a bird sanctuary that became home to thousands of them.

At the age of sixteen he become a freelance telegraph operator which enabled him to observe and research the science behind it.  As a result he developed his first true original invention called an "automatic repeater."

It transmitted telegraph signals between unmanned stations, allowing almost anyone to simply and accurately translate code at their own speed and convenience.  Ironically, he never attempted to obtain a patent for this idea.

By the year 1868 he was well known for his exceptional ability with the telegraph but was penniless.  It only made things worse when he returned home and found that his mother was on the verge of insanity, his father had quit his job and the bank was about to foreclose on the mortgage of their house.

He decided right then that he had to deal with his own difficulties and earn a substantial amount of money as soon as possible.

He became a telegrapher for Western Union and worked twelve hours a day, six days a week but still found time to pursue his own projects.  He even managed to create and patent his first legitimate invention, an electronic voting machine.

Unfortunately, it was not accepted because it altered the political process that those in power found distressing.  Although disappointed, he realized that he needed to focus only on things that people would be happy with and buy.

Through this experience he became enlightened with respect to sales and marketing that he had previously ignored.

After another painful experience involving other pioneers in the area of telegraphy, being deeply in debt and soon to be fired by Western Union for not properly focusing on his responsibilities, he borrowed $35.00 from a friend and purchased a ticket to New York.

After being there over two weeks, almost starving to death and with absolutely no money, an amazing incident took place.

While wandering around the financial district he witnessed the manager of a brokerage firm in panic because a stock-ticker had broken down.  He proceeded to investigate the problem and found a quick solution, a loose spring, which made the manager extremely grateful for which he hired Edison on the spot at the lofty rate (for that time) of $300.00 per month.

Edison reflected later that this experience had delivered him from poverty into prosperity.  Soon afterwards and by way of having invented the first telegraph transmitter capable of quadrupling its speed, a large corporation purchased the rights from him for $40,000.00. It was the first real money that he had ever received in his life and was even afraid that he would be unable to cash the cheque they had given him.

He was astonished that he had all this money but fortunately listened to a friend that told him to simply let it sit in the bank and forget about it for a while.

He soon later contacted his parents, provided them with all the money that they needed and even paid back the $35.00 debt that he had incurred to his friend.

At the age of 29, he was extremely close to inventing the telephone but was outdone by Alexander Graham Bell, who ironically was using a component that Edison had previously created.  Although extremely disappointed, he surpassed everyone else by creating the first practical incandescent electric light bulb shortly afterwards.

This effort alone was an amazing breakthrough and relied on hundreds if not thousands of experiments in order to find the right type of filament that would not disintegrate prematurely.

He discovered that a tungsten based filament in a partial vacuum would be able to last sufficiently long to be of commercial use.

But even this was still not enough for him.  He needed to create a way to generate and distribute electricity that was efficient and not costly.

Perhaps his greatest effort and contribution to humanity was the electrical generation plant and the method of distributing this power to consumers.

There is much more about Thomas Edison that you can read and by visiting the following sites:

A complete biography of Thomas Edison can be read at http://www.thomasedison.com/biog.htm

To review a summarized version of the inventions he created and the events associated with them during his life, visit http://www.thomasedison.com/Inventions.htm

A Success Review of Thomas Edison

With little or no doubt, he was an amazing individual who surpassed everyone's expectations and even his own at some points in his life.

Although he was gifted with intense desire from the start of his life and exceptional mental abilities, the failures and disappointment that he experienced were often extreme.

At times penniless, beyond hunger and having lost most of his hearing ability, he still stayed on his course.  How was he able to continue?

Perhaps because there were many times when failure was not an option for him.  The only way he could continue was to succeed, no matter what he or any one else believed.

When he did finally succeed, he found it incredibly difficult to believe that he had.  After he finally cashed that $40,000.00 cheque (an incredible sum at that time), he did not even know what to do with it.

Here was a man that had already overcome incredible odds in realizing his goals but had difficulty accepting the results of his own success.  Why was it so hard for him?

The important thing to remember is that Thomas Edison did not really seek fortune, but only enough money to continue to live.  The wealth that he may have accumulated were a consequence of his desire to realize other goals.

The large number of patents awarded to him or any of his companies is a testimony to this.  Even so, a large portion of the money received was reinvested in the research and creation of other ventures that would benefit all of mankind.

The wealth that he obtained was a result of his having achieved those goals.  For him, money was at best only a secondary consideration.

One of the items necessary for success is a detailed list of goals.  Did Thomas Edison have such a list?

Perhaps not only a written list of major things he needed or wanted to do, but also a mental list of each task necessary to accomplish each one.

Another requirement for success is a desire to succeed.  Did Edison have this?

His life experiences illustrate this to be absolutely true in both a powerful yet painful way.

Did Edison have any internal belief conflicts about success?

He did have difficulty believing that success could be so financially rewarding and was unprepared for it.

Once he had broken through from poverty to prosperity his outlook changed and he was able to accept success in other ways unknown to him before.

His successes are almost without equal in history, but his knowledge of success was self-learned.  He believed that without some failure there cannot be success and that consistency of effort was far more important.

This is clear by the statement he made regarding genius involving far more perspiration than inspiration.  Although he may not have at first known about success itself, he later came to fully understand it.

The specific knowledge that he accumulated whether by reading, observation or experimenting was immense.  He pursued such knowledge relentlessly at great cost, and was a pioneer who explored uncharted areas of science.

His used the trial and error method of succeeding with little regard to failure.  To him, each failure was just one more way how not to achieve his desired goal.

Another success requirement, obtaining knowledge of success in certain chosen areas may have been very difficult for him to achieve, but he was still able to do so.

His ability to apply knowledge was obviously accomplished by him repeatedly and with incredible desire.  The results of his efforts are clear to anyone using almost any form of technology.

Although Thomas Edison was successful in many ways, his journey to success was exceptionally difficult at best.

Could his journey have been made in any way somewhat easier?  He had enough strength of desire for perhaps ten people and did not need any assistance in this area.

He knew what he wanted to accomplish in almost excessive detail and therefore did not require help to discover what he desired.

However, he did have some belief conflicts regarding success but was eventually able to resolve them.  These could have been addressed much earlier had he known about them.

He also had to learn for himself about success itself and in this respect his journey could have been made somewhat less painful.

In addition, the specific knowledge he had to obtain was virtually unavailable anywhere else and he had to create much of it on his own by the painfully slow method of trial and error.

It is doubtful that he could have been assisted except by a very few peers that he could have collaborated with.

Your path to success can be far easier if you apply the principles, methods and techniques that are available to you.  They will reduce both the time and effort you need in order to achieve the success that you seek.

If Mr. Edison could succeed despite all the obstacles he faced, do you not think that you can too?

He would probably even be pleased that in some small way, your success was partially because of something that he had said or done to inspire you.

Thank you, Thomas Edison for your enormous shoulders on which others can stand upon!

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About the Author

James Kudlak is an Internet consultant, systems programmer, writer and contributor of articles to this website.

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