Thomas Edison was one of the worlds most prolific inventors who got so many things done (with his team) that he has 1093 US patents for inventions, to his name. Edison got a lot of work done. He was a master of taking action, which is also a vital skill for making money. He was an inventor, which meant he created things. He was also a multi-millionaire, who created his own wealth, as well as devising or perfecting many important inventions, such as the light bulb, which have changed the way people live forever. He has since been surpassed by Kia Silverbrook who currently holds 2905 US patents, but Edison remains my favorite inventor due to his colorful life story. Edison was a great inventor, and unlike the reclusive Kia Silverbrook, there is lots of information about him so we can research how he did what he did. Like many underdogs, Edison was told he was not good enough to go to higher education and so did not attend university. Rather than disbelieve in himself, he started to invent things. Edison was not arrogant and realised he would only accomplish his goals via research and hard work. His secret to success was taking action, and working continuously at a problem until he solved it. He met failure many times, for example when his Menlo Park research team allegedly took 10,000 tries to perfect the modern light bulb.
I was thinking of my own millionaire mentor Mr Piper, and how he reminds me of an inventor, with all of his: practical, mechanical, electrical, and financial skills. His garages and outbuildings are like an inventors workshops, full of tools and parts which help him to save even more money by repairing and re-using items. He does not need to do any of this as he is a multi-millionaire but he became so wealthy by continuing to live the lifestyle he now leads. Like Edison, he also takes an amazing amount of action, and gets so many things done, that I am still astounded by how he does it.
One of my major goals this year is to take much more action, and complete lots of projects. Thomas Edison is my role model on getting more things done, taking action and overcoming procrastination. Doing more things makes it easier to make more money. I don't expect to be as good as he was, but I think I can certainly improve my own performance. I have noticed that many successful people put in the work that other people cannot be bothered to do, and reap the rewards. Many people (including me) want an easy life and easy riches, which simply makes them easy prey for the scam finance gurus and their get rich quick schemes. In chapter ten of the book The Richest Man in Babylon, rich man Sharru Nada says that the luckiest man in Babylon, is the man who is able to work. Edison said: "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work".
How do you invent wealth? First you plan for it, then you work for it.
Great quotes by Thomas Edison:
My main purpose in life is to make enough money to create ever more inventions.... The dove is my emblem.... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it.... I am proud of the fact that I have never invented weapons to kill....
I never perfected an invention that I did not think about in terms of the service it might give others... I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent....
My principal business consists of giving commercial value to the brilliant, but misdirected, ideas of others.... Accordingly, I never pick up an item without thinking of how I might improve it.
I readily absorb ideas from every source, frequently starting where the last person left off.
Because ideas have to be original only with regard to their adaptation to the problem at hand, I am always extremely interested in how others have used them....
A good idea is never lost. Even though its originator or possessor may die without publicizing it, it will someday be reborn in the mind of another....
I am not overly impressed by the great names and reputations of those who might be trying to beat me to an invention.... Its their 'ideas' that appeal to me. I am quite correctly described as 'more of a sponge than an inventor....'
"Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration. Accordingly, a 'genius' is often merely a talented person who has done all of his or her homework."
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
The first requisite for success is to develop the ability to focus and apply your mental and physical energies to the problem at hand - without growing weary. Because such thinking is often difficult, there seems to be no limit to which some people will go to avoid the effort and labor that is associated with it....
I never did anything worth doing entirely by accident.... Almost none of my inventions were derived in that manner. They were achieved by having trained myself to be analytical and to endure and tolerate hard work.
Inspiration can be found in a pile of junk. Sometimes, you can put it together with a good imagination and invent something.
Personally, I enjoy working about 18 hours a day. Besides the short catnaps I take each day, I average about four to five hours of sleep per night.
Most of the exercise I get is from standing and walking all day from one laboratory table to another. I derive more benefit and entertainment from this than some of my friends and competitors get from playing games like golf.
If we all did the things we are really capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves....
Our schools are not teaching students to think. It is astonishing how many young people have difficulty in putting their brains definitely and systematically to work....
The three things that are most essential to achievement are common sense, hard work and stick-to-it-iv-ness.....
I have far more respect for the person with a single idea who gets there than for the person with a thousand ideas who does nothing....
Many of life's failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.
Pretty much everything will come to him who hustles while he waits. I believe that restlessness is discontent, and discontent is merely the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure.
Unfortunately, there seems to be far more opportunity out there than ability.... We should remember that good fortune often happens when opportunity meets with preparation.
Just because something doesn't do what you planned it to do in the first place doesn't mean it's useless....
Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward....
Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.
As a cure for worrying, work is far better than whiskey. I always found that, if I began to worry, the best thing I could do was focus upon doing something useful and then work very hard at it. Soon, I would forget what was troubling me.
Barring serious accidents, if you are not preoccupied with worry and you work hard, you can look forward to a reasonably lengthy existence.... Its not the hard work that kills, its the worrying that kills.
The only time I really become discouraged is when I think of all the things I would like to do and the little time I have in which to do them.
The thing I lose patience with the most is the clock. Its hands move too fast.
Time is really the only capital that any human being has and the thing that he can least afford to waste or lose...
From his neck down a man is worth a couple of dollars a day, from his neck up he is worth anything that his brain can produce.
The dove is my emblem.... I want to save and advance human life, not destroy it.... I am proud of the fact that I never invented weapons to kill...
Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge....
Its obvious that we don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
We have merely scratched the surface of the store of knowledge which will come to us. I believe that we are now, a-tremble on the verge of vast discoveries - discoveries so wondrously important they will upset the present trend of human thought and start it along completely new lines .
"The electric light has caused me the greatest amount of study and has required the most elaborate experiments.... Although I was never myself discouraged or hopeless of its success, I can not say the same for my associates.... Through all of the years of experimenting with it, I never once made an associated discovery. It was deductive... The results I achieved were the consequence of invention - pure and simple. I would construct and work along various lines until I found them untenable. When one theory was discarded, I developed another at once. I realized very early that this was the only possible way for me to work out all the problems.
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