“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
— Thomas Edison
I have vague memories of visiting the birthplace and childhood home of Thomas Edison in Milan, Ohio.
I was still too young to commit a great deal of it to memory, but the life achievements and philosophy of this incredible man were conveyed so well that I wanted to know more.
The brick home, built in 1841, was inviting and similar to our own, with no great fancy touches. We could picture kids doing homework at the kitchen table, just like us.
This is why commemorating landmarks is important. A mention from a book would not have imprinted on any one of us in quite the same way that standing where Edison began life as someone’s little boy managed to accomplish.
When we left there that day, I felt compelled to seek out more about this boy who did big enough things that people came from other states just to see his childhood home.
I learned that his mother was told his bubbling-over curiosity caused some issues at school, where he was considered a slow learner. His mother, a former teacher, then primarily homeschooled him. He had the drive to conduct experiments on his own and set up a laboratory in the basement of the family’s home. In 1854, the family moved to Michigan, and Edison spent a great deal of his time reading his mother’s extensive book collection.
By the age of 12, he began selling newspapers, magazines, candy and produce on trains as a way to fund his home experiments. He also began losing his hearing, which he later would say was actually beneficial in giving him complete focus on his lab experiments.
Edison is also such an incredible example of persistence. It is said that he failed 999 times to make a working electric light bulb, though that figure is surely an often-repeated myth.
The young man then founded General Electric Corporation and is credited with numerous inventions, including the incandescent lamp, electric lamp, cement, automatic telegraphy, electric generator, electric light and power system and fuel cell.
He made Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone much better and more powerful by inventing the carbon telephone transmitter, using a battery to provide current on the phone line to control its strength, and using carbon to vary the resistance.
He was just 21 years old when he applied for his first patent in 1868. He moved to New York City to start a career that would see him obtain 1,093 U.S. patents, with hundreds more that he did not pursue.
What made an enormous difference, setting Edison apart from others of his time, is his ability to see the benefit of finding and developing the talents of others. He built a lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, with his enormous capital and hired several dozen people gifted in distinct areas of interest.
In this way, he is said to have pioneered the corporate research and development process.
