Thomas Edison, the great inventor, was also a great man of persistence. Over the course of his lifetime he patented over a thousand of his inventions, one of the most famous of which was the electric candescent light bulb. The story goes that it took Edison several years and many thousands of experiments before he finally discovered the successful formula that gave the world the electric light that we know today.
Throughout the long course of his experiments, try as he might, Edison just couldn’t manage to make the filament in the bulb last more than a few seconds. Eventually after many hundreds of such experiments, Edison was asked why he continued to persevere after failing so many times. Edison replied, “I don’t consider that I have failed hundreds of times! I have, in actual fact, only succeeded in finding hundreds of ways it won’t work… but it will.” After many more hundreds of experiments, Edison finally succeeded in inventing a light bulb where the filament lasted months, and months and months. Thomas Edison was a man of persistence. So, take a leaf out of Edison’s book and don’t ever give up!
R. Ian Seymour
R. Ian Seymour, excerpt adapted from Maximize Your Potential