People don't understand just how vast the contributions of Thomas Edison were:
* Invented the light bulb
* Invented recorded sound
* Invents the carbon microphone telephone
* Key innovations in developing the power grid
* Develops alkaline storage battery
* Major innovator in film and motion pictures
* Invented the research corporation
* Many other "minor" inventions like the underwater microphone, the electric pen, and the mimeograph
He also had one of the most interesting lives of all time:
* Mark Twain frontier childhood
* Has to overcome being mostly deaf from his early childhood (probably due to an explosion he caused from one of his chemistry experiments)
* Prankster who loves shocking people with electricity in an age when most people don't even know what electricity is
* His entire business burns down at its very height
* International celebrity - genuinely one of the most famous people of his day
So what made him great?
* Genuinely addicted to inventing. Usually fell asleep at his desk.
* His lack of education actually helped him. Rather than trying to understand exactly how something worked, he just tinkered until it DID work.
* Unbelievable persistence - just never ever gave up on something once he started it
* Great showman - loved showing off new inventions
* He was comfortable pushing his employees extremely hard
* Unbelievably competitive
Best Edison quotes:
* âEverything on earth depends on will. I never had an idea in my life. Iâve got no imagination. I never dream. My so-called inventions already existed in the environmentâI took them out. Iâve created nothing. Nobody does. Thereâs no such thing as an idea being brain-born; everything comes from the outside. The industrious one coaxes it from the environment; the drone lets it lie there while he goes off to the baseball game. The âgeniusâ hangs around his laboratory day and night. If anything happens heâs there to catch it; if he wasnât, it might happen just the same, only it would never be his.â
* "I am no genius. Unless we accept the theory that genius is prolonged patience. I am patient enough, to be sure."
* Tesla quote about Edison "The effect that Edison had on me was rather extraordinary. When I saw this wonderful man, who had no training at all, no advantages, and did it all himself, and saw the great results by virtue of his industry and application, I felt mortified that I had squandered my life."