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Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Edison’

Craft of your business, business of your craft: It’s all an experiment

February 4th, 2011 No comments
Thomas edison glühbirne

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View all of your endeavors, whether you intend on writing a book, opening up a business, or trying something new that you’ve never done before, as an experiment. Why?

Let me tell you about Thomas Edison’s perspective of doing things which can be directly applied to entrepreneurship if you listen to his words.

It has been known that Edison tried thousands of experiments before he came up with the answer for solving the incandesent light bulb. Now notice what he did. If Edison had tried one experiment, the same experiment over and over, and failed, we can see him being a failure. Often we see this as being persistent. But what did Edison really do?

He tried one experiment and it failed. He changed and tried another experiment and it failed. He tried thousands of ways of coming up with a light bulb and all of them failed. Finally, one day, the found the answer to his quest and found the formula to inventing the light bulb.

Later in life an interviewer said to him if he had not found the answers he was looking for and had not invented the light bulb what would he be doing now? He said, “Not sitting here with you in this interview, but I’d be in my lab figuring it out right now!”

He says it correctly, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

Life is to be a grand experiment, not to be shirked away from.

“Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing.” Thomas A. Edison

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The History of Nikola Tesla – a Short Story

August 2nd, 2010 No comments

We all know of Thomas Edison, but most are not aware of Nikola Tesla. Here’s a short video about who he was.

The History of Nikola Tesla – a Short Story

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Thomas Edison

If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor. Nikola Tesla, assistant to Thomas Edison

A Call to Action is NOT a Call to Activity

November 10th, 2009 No comments

In this blog post “Relentless – the difference between motion and action” is quoting that there is a difference between action and activity. What is the difference?

  • Activity = using your legs to march in place.
  • Action =  using your legs to push a stuck car to get it moving again.

So quit marching in place and get out of the car and push. Here’s some other ideas:

  • Activity = only talking about a problem
  • Action = discussing how to solve a problem

What is the difference between the two?

  • Activity = standing still
  • Action = moving forward

Always move forward.

Being busy does not always mean real work. The object of all work is production or accomplishment and to either of these ends there must be forethought, system, planning, intelligence, and honest purpose, as well as perspiration. Seeming to do is not doing. Thomas Edison

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