Thomas Edison

Being an inventor, says Thomas Edison, is not all about having great

ideas; it’s mostly about working hard and never, never giving up.

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Thomas Edison is known as one of the greatest inventors in history - the light bulb, the
phonograph, the world’s first movie, the stock ticker, the talking doll - more than a
thousand different patents have his name on them! There’s no doubt that Edison had a
very sharp mind. But the man who was called a genius by the whole world said his
success didn’t have much to do with being smart; he put it all down to hard work.
And it is true that few people in the world work as hard as Thomas Edison did. He was
known for working half the night and falling asleep at his workbench. If he had a
problem to solve, he would skip meals and go on a few hours of sleep for weeks on end.
Edison simply never gave up. He would keep working, no matter how long it took, until
he found the best way of doing things.
His gift for inventing and his determination to succeed almost went unrecognized.
Growing up in the 1800s, Edison had seemed doomed to fail. He had two problems that
caused him real trouble in school.
First, he was very hard of hearing (this was before hearing aids were invented). Second,
he just couldn’t seem to focus and sit still. These days, teachers would identify him as
having a learning disability; back then, they just said he was unteachable.
So, his mother pulled him out of school at age ten and set out to teach him herself. She
knew that her son was much smarter than his teachers thought. And she saw that he never