Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman who has been widely regarded as the founder of both America’s electrical power industry and its nationwide system of public illumination. His contribution to music distribution with phonographs that could playback sound recordings.
Edison led the expansion of the American economy through his leadership in new mass-production technologies, which became known worldwide as “Fordism” – based on what was described as “The Edison Effect”. This article looks at nine lessons from Thomas Edison’s life for entrepreneurs!
1. Have a vision
In Edison’s own words:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Edison’s most famous invention was the phonograph, which he created in 1877 by accident. At this time, he had been working on recording telephone transmissions via a device called a ‘sound-writer’. While he demonstrated this device, one of the telephone’s clients requested that Edison show him how it worked. Edison was so excited by the request that he forgot to take off his work gloves before picking up the telephone. As a result, the client heard nothing but static.
2. Dedicated hard work
As Edison’s sound-writer was obviously not going to work, he decided to throw it into the trash. However, as he looked at the device one last time before throwing it away, inspiration struck him, and he suddenly realised that if a needle were to move up and down through a groove on a piece of cardboard, this would produce a recognisable sound. So, Edison took out the needle and moved it over a piece of tinfoil, producing sound. When he then tried this with cardboard, he found that the sound was much clearer.
3. Be open to new ideas
Having now realised that his device could record and playback sounds, Edison spent all night recording various messages on the machine. The next morning, Edison played the recordings back to his colleagues to show them that he had finally succeeded in recording telephone messages. Most of them were unimpressed by the invention. Undeterred, Edison felt sure that others would be interested in hearing recorded music and immediately created a device that could playback sound recordings.
4. Keep going, even when the odds are against you
As ‘talking machines’ had been around for some time previously, Edison decided to call his invention the phonograph, because it used sound-waves to reproduce recorded sound. His first phonograph used tinfoil as a recording medium and was rather cumbersome. However, he did not give up and continued to experiment. Eventually, Edison found that wax paper could be used as a recording medium and this eventually led him to invent the first commercially produced phonograph in 1878.
5. Creativity comes from the most unlikely of sources
As mentioned previously, Edison was working on a ‘sound writer’ device when inspiration struck, and he decided to put the device into the trash. He had already been working on this device for some time without success. Still, something about it must have stuck with him because when he was inspired to work on recording devices, he immediately thought of his sound-writer and began work on how it could be improved upon.
As a result, Edison now sees the ‘sound writer’ as being the predecessor of both the phonograph and the motion picture camera. However, he also saw a link between all three of his inventions, noting that:
“The motion picture is an invention which will do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.”
6. Be focused on your goals
Edison was so focused on creating the phonograph and the motion picture camera, that he even failed to realise that his first invention – the electric light bulb – had been created by another inventor before him. Edison became aware of this fact only when he read about it in a magazine. However, instead of feeling discouraged or guilty about having ‘stolen’ the idea from someone else, he felt motivated to invent something even better. As a result, Edison invented an improved version of the electric light bulb, which was more efficient and easier to use than the original.
7. Be conscious of other people’s feelings
Although Edison’s motion picture camera eventually went on to be a massive success, he became very upset when he found that his original idea – to develop a ‘peep-hole’ motion picture camera that would allow the film to be viewed by one person at a time through a small window – was being used as the basis for another inventor’s screenplay. The story was about a dentist who gave people unpleasant experiences without them even knowing about it beforehand – this was apparently based upon the experience of an actor who had auditioned for Edison but not been cast. Although he would go on to feel satisfied about his eventual success with the motion picture camera, at the time Edison felt very bad about what he considered to be ‘theft’.
8. Dare to fail
The first time Edison demonstrated his phonograph, it only had limited memory and could only record around four seconds worth of sound. When he realised that this was not going to be suitable for office work as had been suggested by some people who saw the potential of the invention, he attempted to improve upon it. However, after several failed attempts at improving the phonograph, Edison became aware that the device was never perfect and stopped spending so much time on it. As a result, he no longer thought of it as his main priority and instead decided to move his attention towards developing the motion picture camera. This invention would later prove to be extremely lucrative.
9. Don’t let failure get you down
Although Edison had failed to meet the expectations of others with his phonograph, he was not too bothered by this. Instead, he actually felt happy that they had never achieved their full potential because it meant that he had more time to focus on other inventions which would be more successful.
Edison is still regarded as one of America’s greatest inventors – he holds a total of 1,093 US patents to his name. His many inventions have helped improve the lives of millions of people around the globe. In addition, they have brought him an enormous amount of money in royalties that he used to set up research laboratories to produce even more groundbreaking inventions.
Edison’s famous quote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” demonstrates his belief in the importance of hard work.
The biographer Matthew Josephson observed that: “He knew that genius did not spring fully-armed from the head of Zeus; it was the fruit of unremitting toil.”
As a result, Edison dedicated his life to hard work and persistence – he was never content to rest on his laurels, instead always believing that there was still so much more for him to achieve.
Conclusion: Life Lessons from Thomas Edison
The Thomas Edison story offers us an important lesson about success – you don’t necessarily have to be the smartest person to achieve great things. Still, if you are willing to work hard and persist in the face of setbacks, you too could end up achieving great things.