Thomas Alva Edison was one of the most famous, successful and hard-working inventors in history. When he died in 1931 he held 1093 patents in his name. Some of his most used inventions were the light bulb and the gramophone.
Obviously Edison did not obtain over 1000 patents by luck, every successful man has some driving force of values behind him. Here are a few values from Edison that lead to his success.
“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
One of the problems in life is that people just give up too soon. I think quite a big bit of this because of social programming and the expectations set by society. It’s seen as pretty normal to try once or maybe a few times and then give up.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Now, how do you reframe failure? How do you look at it so you don’t feel overwhelmed and give up? Well, you can look at failure as a part of a process. You look at it as ways that won’t work. You draw lessons from those ways. Then you let that go, focus on the present and try again (this time perhaps in a different way).
“The value of an idea lies in the using of it.”
Useful information is good. But you have to put it to use sometime or you’ll never reap any benefits or success. This is a pretty common problem when you for instance get interested in personal development. You get a lot of books, programs etc. and you study them. And then you get more.
“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.”
Just going for it, taking action and doing something isn’t enough. You have to ask yourself if what you are doing is useful? Or is it just another way to keep yourself busy, to keep yourself from doing what you really want to do?
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
There is a myth that geniuses mostly just are geniuses and can do great things pretty much as easily as you and I tie our shoelaces. But what is seldom mentioned or seen is how much the really successful people work. And how far the people that just practice, practice, practice can go.
Everyone has some potential in them, to be successful is to understand your potential and put it into action. Not everyone can invent the light bulb, or run a 4 minute mile, or be a Navy Seal but everyone can take what God gave them and turn that into something special. Everyone has a gift, you just have to find it.
-Derived from Personal Development with The Positivity Blog by
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