Life Is All About Balance
A Lesson From The Greatest Inventor of the 20th Century
Thomas Edison’s greatest strength was his persistence. The guy just wouldn’t give up. Although the quote, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." is possibly apocryphal, it was truly representative of the man. In the areas where others gave up, Edison would not give up. Edison tried many materials to create the light bulb. He tried countless filaments. He tried cotton thread, he tried paper, and he even tried human hair, yet none of those worked. It was only after many tries that he fell upon the carbonized bamboo to serve as filament. In developing the phonograph, he faced the same challenges. Only his persistence saw him through. He faced incredible challenges while developing a power plant. Only his persistence saw him through. The same applies to the laboratory fire, the motion picture camera, and every other invention that put Edison ahead of others.
However, the same persistence that made Thomas Edison, Thomas Edison almost killed him! His persistence was his greatest hack. Yet, it became his Achilles heel when applied to business. While Edison was a great inventor, he was a terrible businessman. This was obvious to everyone except Edison. Due to his persistence, he refused to see this. For many years, this was the drawback of the Edison Empire. Edison would make an invention, gather the press, and make promises, yet none of those were translated into a marketable product. He was just not a businessman. He was just not a good marketer. He made real efforts to turn his ideas into products that would give him money, but he did not succeed. He just wasn’t cut for it. Because persistence had paid him off in inventing tools, he refused to see that persistence wouldn’t help him in terms of marketing. For many years, the Edison Laboratory was on the verge of bankruptcy and debt. What was terrible about Edison was that many people offered to help, yet the man wouldn’t allow them. He believed he would figure it out eventually. But as we know, life isn’t waiting for Edison to figure out business.
The same thing that made him a great man had become the thing that is almost killing him. It was only towards the end of his life that JP Morgan, the wealthy financier partnered with him, helped to turn Edison’s inventions into market products.
I recently read in a newsletter that “Life is all about balance.”
Without it, even your greatest strength becomes a weakness.