Thomas Edison And The Pursuit Of Failure

Who is Thomas Edison? Almost everyone knows him as more or less the most famous inventor who ever lived. Not only is he known for the invention of the lightbulb, the phonograph, the Quadruplex telegraph and the motion picture camera, he currently holds more than a thousand other patents in the United States. It’s hard to imagine, with this illustrious resume, how Edison could have been anything other than a success all throughout life.

And yet, he wasn’t. Today, the story of Thomas Edison is seen as one of unimaginable success, but in reality, it was almost equal parts adversity. Edison suffered a vicious bout of scarlet fever as a child, and the damage it did to his hearing stayed with him for the rest of his life—as an adult he eventually lost hearing entirely in one ear and retained very little in the other.

Edison had humble beginnings, and was a hyperactive, easily distracted child whom teachers found difficult and even too stupid to learn anything. As a child he never stayed in school for long and was largely homeschooled, making money here and there selling sweets, fruit and newspapers, and embarking on many small entrepreneurial ventures. Edison was a true autodidact, and was driven by a curiosity to understand and a desire to improve people’s lives using technology and common sense. He was a telegraph operator in his teens, often working at night, and was already experiencing limitations due to his hearing loss. He was a curious and voracious reader, however, and constantly designing and inventing things.

Edison was fired from his first two jobs very quickly. His first real invention was the electric vote recorder. It failed. He kept at it and eventually the device was manufactured on a large scale, after countless improvements to the design. Edison married and had children, and soon had his own lab at his disposal, where he and his other “muckers” invented the famous phonograph to record a voice and play it back. Then came the incandescent lightbulb and fluorescent light—and the countless nights in electrical experimentation, endless experiments, endless failures.

Edison was never without a project in the works, and usually dozens were on the go at one time. Once he succeeded in something, he worked to improve it. He designed, built, and tested new devices and then tried to get them manufactured and sold all over the world.

He worked on X-rays, storage batteries, in mining and chemical engineering, electricity and even the design of a talking doll. He improved the telephone for Western Union and refined many other inventors’ work. Edison, by now well-known and admired for his genius and incredible work ethic, had a normal-sized ego and was fond of putting his success down to nothing more than the willingness to work.

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“Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes wearing overalls and looks like work,” Edison famously said. He was not a man to boast about his intellect or natural talent (like our mythical Arachne!) but rather understood that what mattered was what you did, and that took hard work and persistence.

Many of the famous quotes now attributed to Edison speak to his attitude toward creating: “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do, doesn’t mean it’s useless.” Could there be any more of a quintessential inventor’s manifesto as that? Edison was curious by nature, and saw opportunity all around him. He didn’t get bogged down in labeling some things “success” and others “failures.”

He merely maintained the open mind of a rational scientist and observed. What happened when he did X, Y and Z? What happened if he changed a little and tried again? What could he learn, and how could he test this updated hypothesis?

Edison is the man credited with saying he didn’t discover the lightbulb, but a thousand ways not to make a lightbulb. This lighthearted joke conceals a deep insight: that the most resilient attitude in life is often the most flexible one, because flexibility allows one to look in many different ways, to seek out the “blessing in disguise.”

We can follow Einstein’s example when we let go of old narratives about how things should be, and when we stop expecting our success to take only a very limited shape, or else we classify it a failure.

This is what psychologists have now come to understand as a “growth mindset.” Rather than seeing ourselves as fixed entities, with stable sets of skills and abilities and a personality that is largely settled, we can understand that we are always, always growing—if we allow it. With this growth mindset, we don’t see “failure” as a threat to our identity, or worth. We expect failure because we understand it’s part and parcel of the process of growth—which is what we are primarily interested in.

A scientist is interested in the outcome of his experiment, whatever it is. This is because no matter what shape it takes, he gains in knowledge. In valuing this knowledge, he continues to experiment, grateful for every second he gets to learn and develop, to challenge himself intellectually. To gain ground, he must be patient, think clearly, make good plans, test them, and never stop improving. You’ll notice that nowhere in that process is an ego required!

In fact, vanity can only get in the way of discovery and invention of all kinds. A “fixed mindset” can give us a mental concept of ourselves as successful only if and when we succeed—so what will happen when we fail? We’ll translate the event into a personal flaw, feel bad about it, and even shrink away from trying again because the blow to our confidence was unbearable. Rather than trying and failing, we choose not to try at all, or limit ourselves to only those activities we can be sure of performing well.

But a person with a growth mindset doesn’t mind what lies on the path to the goal. They don’t see failure as a problem—they may scarcely even see it as a failure to start with. Something may not go as planned, but they’ll look at it and even feel grateful, knowing that they are still one step closer to their goal.

They know that learning is sometimes messy, and they are not embarrassed to make a mistake, go the wrong path or have everything blow up in their faces. Embracing the fact that growth is a process, they intrinsically understand that there is a path to walk, and that path could well entail some twists and turns on the way.

When Edison began his life, he had no idea that he would one day be called “the world’s greatest inventor.” Earning that accolade was not his goal, either. He was unknown as an inventor for very many years before he started to achieve success and fame. Before this, he was just like any one of us, working away at the things we care about, failing occasionally, succeeding occasionally. Edison himself never had any certainty that anything he did would succeed—and yet he still persisted.

What we can learn from Edison is to do the same, not at some end point where we know the path we took was the right one, but right now, where we’re still unsure about how things work, or what we need to do. Edison teaches us quite simply not to give up.

Try again. You’ll have days when you feel your task is impossible. Keep trying. You’ll even have days where you feel like you’re going backwards—keep trying still. Learn from your mistakes and make better mistakes the next time round. Though successful people have succeeded far more often than the ordinary person, they’ve also failed far more often!

Edison did not believe in luck or genius or accident. He believed in honest work, period. Use what you have at your disposal and “hustle while you wait” rather than expecting that everything will come together in the future, or be handed to you if only you’re deserving enough. Take ego, morality and emotion out of the equation—set your goal in front of you and decide on the steps you need to take to achieve it.

And then, find out exactly what you need to do to convert whatever talents and opportunities you have into something you can be proud of.

Easier said than done, of course, and nobody would suggest that we all need to strive to be prolific inventors. So far we’ve looked at athletes, authors and now a scientist, but what if you’re none of these? What if you don’t aim for wealth or fame? Edison still teaches us that we can always achieve the best of our potential, and make a life that is worth living on our own terms.

Edison excelled in the sciences, but he never achieved a thing as a writer and likely couldn’t dance, paint, be a politician or cater a meal for five hundred people. But he found the way to make the best use of the personal talents he did possess, and today it scarcely matters that some of his schoolteachers found his handwriting unsatisfactory, or that there are people who can swim better than he can.

Edison invented because he was an inventor. It was not a passion so much as a way of life, something he almost couldn’t help but do. Can we learn to bravely pursue our own talents and interests the way he did? Try to think of what you’re most passionate and curious about in this world—about those things that have always held your love and fascination, even as a child. Think of those things you pursued with energy and diligence, even though they didn’t make you any money, and even though you didn’t strictly need to do them. Dedicating your life to a particular path can seem daunting—but not if what you are pursuing is genuinely the thing that interests you most in life.

So many of us limit ourselves artificially. We tell ourselves stories about why we can’t achieve, why we shouldn’t even try. We may believe fervently in a vision of our identity that is purely fictional, but which nevertheless becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. We might say, “Sure, that’s fine for that person, but that could never happen for me” or “I’m just an unlucky person. I’ll never be successful.”

When you can set aside these stories, limitations, assumptions, expectations… then you can see the world as it is, with all its rich possibilities and avenues to explore. An inventor knows this instinctively—that there is always a way, always a solution. Can’t see it yet? It doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, it just means you haven’t found it yet, that’s all. If you try something and it doesn’t work, well, there’s another avenue to explore.

Finally, Edison can teach us a lot about creativity. Self-discipline and creativity are not opposites. If we can have the self-discipline to routinely make time and space for it, our imagination and creativity can flourish fully. Clear your head and open your mind so your God-given creativity can do its magic. Look at things from another perspective, be bold, ask strange questions and don’t be afraid to find out the answers… And before you decide to give up, ask yourself whether you’ve really exhausted all possibilities. Ask for help or take a break—it doesn’t matter how slow you walk, only that you don’t stop walking!