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99% PERSPIRATION
FINDING YOUR INNER EDISON
By Tom Terez
Thomas Edison stands tall as the world's most productive inventor. With 1,093 patents
during his 84 years, he brought us light, recorded sound, and motion pictures. He
also gave us a life's worth of lessons on how we too can be creative and inventive.
Here are ten of the most important:
1. Find an advocate and coach.
From the moment he could talk, Edison asked questions. Why is the grass green?
How do birds fly? What makes a rainbow? His entire being seemed defined by endless
curiosity. He asked so many questions that one teacher labeled him as "a little
addled." His mother thought just the opposite, seeing his curious nature as
a great strength. She began home schooling young Thomas, replacing the rote learning
with hands-on activities. The pair even built a small lab so Edison could experiment.
2. Don't just speculate -- take action and see for yourself.
The world is filled with "idea people" whose grand visions remain stuck
between dream stage and drawing board. Edison went far beyond. One time, the curious
youngster figured that by consuming enough Seidlitz powder -- a so-called medicine
that bubbled up when added to water -- a person would float through the air like
so many inflated balloons. He convinced a friend to go along and start drinking.
The stomach inflated well enough, but the friend stayed firmly on land. It was a
minor setback for the young inventor. While his friend busied himself burping, Edison
happily moved on to his next experiment.
3. Work harder.
Edison showed extraordinary industry throughout his life. At age 12, he took
a job selling newspapers on the Grand Trunk Railway, which had trains running between
his hometown of Port Huron, Michigan, and Detroit. He decided he could make more
money selling candy and drinks as well, so he added these to his product line. Then
he started selling vegetables from his family's garden. Then he created his own newspaper,
the "Grand Trunk Herald," and began selling that to passengers too.
4. Seize every opportunity to experiment.
While most kids were busy playing games, Edison wanted to experiment. Even on
the train, he had his own corner of a freight car reserved for chemical experimentation
-- thanks to an indulgent guard who looked the other way. But one day an experiment
went awry and the car caught on fire. No one was hurt, but the guard was mad enough
to throw away all of Edison's equipment. For the young experimenter, it was just
another minor setback. He soon had new equipment and was once again mixing chemicals.
5. Be a nonstop learner.
The daily train runs would put Edison in Detroit at lunchtime, where he spent
his free time consuming books at the Detroit Free Library. He endeavored to read
every book in the collection. And when he saved a toddler from a runaway train car,
the station master (who was also the father of the rescued child) asked Edison to
name his reward. "Teach me how to work a telegraph machine," Edison responded.
Thus began his mastery of Morse code and his enchantment with communication and possibility.
6. Put your money where your mind is.
There were some books Edison wanted that couldn't be found in the library, so
he bought them with his earnings. One of these, "Experimental Researches in
Electricity" by English scientist Michael Farady, lit up the young inventor's
imagination. Later on, he made much bigger investments. When Gold and Stock Telegraph
Co. paid him $40,000 for his new Universal Stock Ticker, the 23-year-old used his
windfall to establish a workshop and hire a crew of engineers. About five years later,
when Western Union hired him to invent improvements to Alexander Graham Bell's telephone,
Edison invested again, moving his operations to a newly built and much bigger workshop
in Menlo Park, New Jersey. The Invention Factory, as he called it, would "come
up with a small thing every ten days and a big thing every six months."
7. Do what it takes.
Edison wouldn't have flourished in a workplace with regular hours. He sometimes
worked more than 24 hours at a stretch, taking brief naps to cut the fatigue. He
often worked three days straight, followed by a couple days off. Legend has it that
he even worked until midnight on his wedding day. But the serious inventor also had
a penchant for play. Edison was known to mark unexpected discoveries in the lab with
an impromptu Zulu war dance. He had a pipe organ placed in the lab so mealtimes could
be filled with music and singing. There was even a Menlo Park band, and Edison would
sometimes serve as the grand marshal for boisterous parades around tables covered
with test tubes, wires, and equipment.
8. Surround yourself with genius.
Even with his sky-high IQ and natural curiosity, Edison knew he needed an assembly
of talent and expertise. So he hired people like John Kruesi, a clockmaker from Switzerland,
and Charles Batchelor, a textile machinist born in England. Kruesi would turn Edison's
sketches into intricate designs, while Batchelor turned the designs into models.
In 1872 alone, with Kruesi and Batchelor at his side, Edison received 34 patents.
Many people wanted to work with Edison, but this world-class inventor sought only
world-class associates. Every applicant had to complete a 150-question exam with
questions tailored to specific jobs. Among them: "Who invented logarithms?"
"What is the weight of air in a room 10 by 20 by 30 feet?" "What voltage
is used on streetcars?" Edison required applicants to get nine out of ten questions
correct.
9. Don't make excuses.
At age seven, Edison contracted scarlet fever and ended up with hearing loss
-- a problem made worse by inflammation of the bones inside his ears. It was a serious
disability, especially for someone whose work involved so much communication. But
Edison's ability far exceeded his disability, and he adapted in his trademark inventive
way. When working to improve the telephone, he couldn't hear well enough to do proper
testing. So he attached a magnet to the receiver and held the magnet in his clenched
teeth -- allowing the sound waves to travel through his jawbone and into his inner
ear. The sound came through loud and clear.
10. Be guided by an inspiring vision.
The inventor who was hard of hearing had a keen sense of vision. Early in his
career, he developed an electronic vote counter to be used by legislatures -- but
the device had no takers. Edison vowed that his future inventions would solve problems
and truly improve people's quality of life. When he began working on the incandescent
lamp, Edison set out to light the world. So when the first bulb glowed brightly on
October 21, 1879, he knew that the real work was just beginning. Edison and his team
moved to New York and began building America's first electric power plant. They developed
generators, underground wiring, meters, and many other components. On September 5,
1882, the first big test was a dramatic success as lights went on in 85 New York
locations.
The rest is history -- or is it?
Edison's story is more about the future than the past, and it prompts some crucial
questions: What can we do to be more inventive? How can we help create a better future?
Are there actions we can take right now to brighten our work lives, our workplaces,
and our world? We all have Edison-like qualities in our wiring. It's simply a matter
of finding the "on" switch.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Terez is the founder of InnerBest.com, BetterWorkplaceNow.com,
and TomTerez.com. His talks and workshops are all about helping individuals
and organizations achieve their very best. Click here to send Tom a note.
Copyright 2005 Tom Terez. |
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