MR FAILURE.

MR FAILURE!

When you hear the word failure what often comes to mind?

On one occasion a young journalist challenged Thomas Edison saying to him, "Mr. Edison, why do you keep trying to make light by using electricity when you have failed so many times? Don't you know that gas lights are with us to stay?"

To this Edison replied, "Young man, don't you realize that I have not failed but have successfully discovered six thousand ways that won't work!" this was how many times he had failed in his experiment as at the time.

On October 21, 1879, after thirteen months of repeated failures, Edison finally succeeded in finding a filament that would work.

After going through two spools of cotton, he eventually perfected a strand only to break it while trying to place it in a glass tube. He refused to give up and persevered with this idea for two more days and nights without sleep. Finally he succeeded in placing a carbonized thread into a vacuum-sealed bulb! Eureka! It worked.

Edison failed to refine the light bulb so many times it took him 10,000 attempts to perfect. However rather than accepting failure 9,999 times he is quoted as answering questions on his failures as rather: ‘I have not failed. I have just found 9,999 ways that do not work’.

One very inspirational story is that of Thomas Edison. He had problems in school, and he was sent home after only three months. He experimented on his own, and he started working at only twelve. Early in life, he became nearly deaf after an accident. He went to New York at age 22 with only one dollar to his name. Edison went broke trying to create a cheap but reliable incandescent light bulb. Some estimate it took over 10,000 attempts. Things were so bad that he couldn’t even pay his employees. The rest, though, is history, and in 1879 he produced a bulb created with an improved vacuum. In December 1914, a factory of his was burned down, causing $7,000,000 in damage. Edison’s response was, “There’s value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew.” According to the story, this gave him opportunity to deliver a new and improved phonograph. Whether that is true or not, it did enable him to synthesize materials that were of short supply because of the war and improve the efficiency of his factory.

Failure can be a chance to learn what not to do, or it can be a chance to start totally over. The important thing is to not give up.

Perseverance pays.