He was the seventh of seven children born to Sam and Nancy. He didn’t seem to be exceptionally scholastic, lasting only a few months in school before an administrator labeled him as “addled.”1 This infuriated his mother who pulled him from school and decided to homeschool him long before homeschooling was a thing.
By the age of 10, this young man was working, selling newspapers and candy on the Grand Trunk Railroad. By the time he was 12, he lost most of his hearing, possibly due to an earlier bout with scarlet fever.
As he grew, he began to experiment with both chemistry and mechanical things. When he was 16, he had learned how to operate the telegraph and used this as a way to finance his experiments.
What a FAILURE! He made something called an electrographic vote recorder to quickly calculate the tally of votes. Politicians hated the concept because – well, it was just too honest!
Then, he got involved with cement in a time when cement was too expensive and impractical. He thought cement could be used for anything: cabinets, pianos, houses, etc. This idea flopped, although, the cement company he founded did provide cement for the Yankee’s stadium.
Other failed inventions were the Kinetoscope, a talking doll, a tinfoil phonograph, ore mills and separators. And long before there was the Columbia House Music club where you could buy eight CDs for a penny with the agreement to buy a certain number at the regular price, he invented his own home service recordings club. The big problem with his idea was that he didn’t have the means to go big. It was all local and regional sales which couldn’t pay the bills, nor could he supply much of a diverse inventory.2
These failures could have discouraged him but, instead, he just kept on inventing things. In fact, the invention he is known for the most was attempted 2,774 times with each
attempt ending in failure.3 Despite the setbacks and failures, he finally succeeded. In fact, he went on to obtain 1,093 patents.4 When questioned about all the failures, he famously said, “I have not failed 10,000 times. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” This is the same man who said that “genius comprises 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”5
If you haven’t already guessed, this man is Ohioan Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of the light bulb on the 2,775th attempt. We could say that Edison was “brighter” than some gave him credit for!! (Apologies to my wife for a dad joke!)
Edison could have been destroyed as a young boy by the comments of those who said he was addled. Instead, his mother made it her mission to show her son that he was valuable and important. He was not addled, ignorant, or unteachable. Of his mother, Edison said, “”My mother was the making of me. She was so true, so sure of me, and I felt I had some one to live for, some one I must not disappoint.”6
I know of a person who was told as a child that he would never amount to anything. Unfortunately, this child didn’t have Mrs. Edison for a mother. Those words stuck in the child’s mind and heart their entire life. Whenever a failure in life came along – as they do in all of our lives – the words came back to whisper in his ear, “You’re just a failure and that’s all you’ll ever be.”
Words are powerful. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” And Proverbs 10:20-21 says, “The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. (21) The lips of the righteous feed many: but fools die for want of wisdom.”
How many people do we run into throughout the day that could use a good, strong dose of encouragement? Could they use someone to speak a word of blessing over them? Would a kindness expressed from our lips help to bolster their spirits? There will be plenty of people in this world who will degrade and destroy someone with their tongue. Why can’t we take some countermeasures by speaking words that edify?
Take to heart the words Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 10:12, “The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious…”
1https://www.loc.gov/collections/edison-company-motion-pictures-and-sound-recordings/articles-and-essays/biography/life-of-thomas-alva-edison/
2https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/7-epic-fails-brought-to-you-by-the-genius-mind-of-thomas-edison-180947786/
3https://www.vedantu.com/blog/how-many-times-edison-failed-to-invent-bulb
4https://www.thoughtco.com/thomas-edison-failures-1991687
5https://www.vedantu.com/blog/how-many-times-edison-failed-to-invent-bulb
6Martin V. Melosi, Thomas A. Edison and the Modernization of America, (Glenview, Illinois: Scott, Foresman/Little, Brown Higher Education, 1990) p. 8.
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
