The Great Inventor Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Alva Edison had only three months of schooling before he was considered by his teacher, “too stupid to learn”, and was sent home. His teacher actually concluded that Thomas Alva Edison could not learn and was stupid; therefore, he told Nancy Edison – his mother, she became very mad and decided to teach Thomas herself. However, she did encourage him to be self-educated and he spent most of his time in the library reading books, especially scientific books. Thus, his mother later bought him the Dictionary of Science, and he read it all.

Before Thomas Alva Edison was ten, he had already read History of England, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, History of the World, Burton's Anatomy Of Melancholy, The Age of Reason and a number of works on Practical Chemistry. Likewise, when he was ten years old he set up his own chemical laboratory in the basement of his house. Life for Thomas was not an easy one. So, when he was twelve, he took up a job as a newspaper boy. He sold newspapers, candy, books, fruits, and other snacks to passengers of trains.

At fifteen, he purchased a small printing press located at the train station. His turning point came when he rescued the son of the railway stationmaster. To show his appreciation to Edison, he taught Edison the art of telegraphy. When he was seventeen, he became one of the most expert telegraph operators. This is a man that his schoolteacher wrote-off.

Edison continued to spend time and money on self-improvement, and as a result he gained the equivalent of many college degrees, although he had only three months of formal education. Edison realized his weakness and used the brains of others. He had a pool of 61 talented people, consisting of chemist, engineers, model makers, scientists, mathematicians and skilled mechanics. During his lifetime, he patented more than 1,100 inventions. One of his inventions was the electric light bulb. He succeeded only after failing more than 10,000 times.

 Today, Thomas Edison invented something that changed the world and technology forever - the light bulb. He installed a lighting system in New York, and lit it up. Everyone thought that Thomas was a wizard, and gave him the name "Wizard of Menlo Park".

Friends, you may get a lot of negative feedback from others, and so much happens in life to block the road you wish to travel. Never you give up! Stay at it, just like Thomas did. Pretty soon you will arrive at your greatness where the whole world will celebrate you. Therefore, you have to understand that there are no shortcuts to building a life of substance. It's an on-going process. It takes time, real effort and a desire to become more than you already are. It's a worthy challenge. 

Education alone will not make you successful, although it does help. Edison was successful because he was creative and had a strong willingness to learn new things. He had a mastermind alliance with a group of experts, to bridge his weakness. He was also persistent in whatever he does. When he failed 10,000 times to perfect the electric light bulb, he did not treat it as 10,000 failures. To Edison, he found 10,000 ways that does not work!

Thomas Edison’s Quotes on Failure

"Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” ― Thomas A. Edison

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” -Thomas Edison

“Five percent of the people think;
ten percent of the people think they think;
and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“Failure is really a matter of conceit. People don’t work hard because, in their conceit, they imagine they’ll succeed without ever making an effort. Most people believe that they’ll wake up some day and find themselves rich. Actually, they’ve got it half right, because eventually they do wake up.”
― Thomas A. Edison

“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure”
― Thomas A. Edison