Welcome to this month's E-zine!

We hope you are enjoying a wonderful spring. We have been very busy doing terrific events for the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Fujitsu, Hamilton Health Sciences, Manheim, the Institute of Housing, and many others. Thanks to all our wonderful and loyal clients!

We have also just launched 2 1/2 exciting new stories: one on the amazing blind artist John Bramblitt who was featured in an E-zine last year; a great new story on Change which will be excellent for any conference in which dealing with massive change is an issue; and a rewrite and re-edit of our great Interface Carpets story to make it even better.

Speaking of change, this month’s Ezine is about a man who drove massive change. In fact, in a very real sense, he personally founded three industries which have had a gigantic effect on our world: the recording industry, motion pictures, and electrical power.

I can’t think of a single other figure who has had that broad an influence.

I hope you enjoy the story of Thomas Edison.

Yours in Leadership,

Doug Keeley

Please visit our website at www.themarkofaleader.com

Thomas Edison – Changing our World Forever

It is hard for most people today – at least those of us in so-called “developed countries” – to remember or even imagine a world without telephones, movie theaters, recorded music or even electric lights. But that was the world when Thomas Edison was born in 1847.

As a child, Edison was extremely inquisitive, but also something of a dreamer (if modern psychology had existed at the time, he would probably have been diagnosed with ADD!).

By the age of 12 he was working on the Grand Trunk railway, where on one occasion his quick actions saved a child’s life. In gratitude, the child's father taught him Morse code and the operation of the telegraph. In those days (1863) this was the equivalent of being trained to use and program a state-of-the-art computer today!

Tom immediately began tinkering with the technology, learning all he could about it, and finding ways to improve it or expand its principles into other areas.

By his early twenties, he had already registered patents on several of his own inventions, and sold the rights to an improved stock ticker, making him wealthy. He was now in a position to explore any field he wanted.

Over the next few years, he formed a team of researchers and inventors to work for him and continued to invent and patent a number of successful inventions. One of the most successful was a new carbon microphone which finally made Alexander Bell’s new “telephone” device loud enough and clear enough for practical use. (This same technology was still widely used in telephones right up to the 1980s.)

Edison moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, N.J., and within a year, the sprawling complex was the largest scientific testing laboratory in the world. He was one of the first to apply the principles of mass production and large teamwork to the process of innovation. Ultimately, he secured over 400 patents on the work done here and is regarded as one of the most successful idea incubators in history.

His wide-ranging curiosity took his research in many directions. For example, in 1877, more or less out of the blue, he invented the phonograph…a way of recording voices and music onto fragile wax cylinders. This new technology so amazed and excited the public imagination that Edison became immediately famous for it.

But a year later he put it on the back shelf for over a decade, as an even bigger opportunity now occupied his attention: the search for a practical, reliable form of electric lighting.

In truth, Edison didn't actually even "invent" the light bulb; a number of other inventors had developed forms of electric lighting before he began his experiments. He simply found a better material (carbonized thread) to use as the filament.

No, his real achievement was far bigger: making electric light commercially practical.

Because before his new bulb would do anyone any good, Edison had to invent an entire electrical distribution system that could support city-sized populations.

Specifically, there were at least 7 essential technologies to be invented before incandescent lights would be practical, safe, and economical.

• the parallel circuit,
• a better dynamo,
• some form of voltage stabilizer,
• a conductor network to distribute the power
• safety fuses and insulating materials,
• light sockets with on-off switches.
• And then…a durable light bulb.

And you guessed it: none of that existed at the time. Nor did generating stations, transmission lines, transformers or outlets to plug anything into.

Before this brand new technology could change the world, every one of these elements had to be first invented – and then developed into practical, reproducible components, deployed and integrated, and finally rolled out commercially.

Think how long and arduous such an undertaking would be, even today!

How long did it take Edison and his team? Just four years.

Four years, from the first successful light bulb in a laboratory to the first generating station, supplying 85 customers in New York City.

And after that, the growth was exponential: one year later, he had 550 customers, with almost 11,000 electric lights, and was opening a second generating station. He had also established Edison companies to handle each part of the electricity supply chain.

But other, competing technologies were now challenging his. In particular, while Edison continued to champion DC (Direct Current), it had severe voltage loss problems when transmitted over distance, making AC a better choice. While the two co-existed for a while, eventually, it was AC which came to dominate.

In 1982, Edison General Electric Company went through a merger and became General Electric. Past that point Thomas himself had no further involvement in the electricity business.

Of course, he was far from finished changing the world!

He immediately went on to develop some of the first motion picture technologies, producing not just the equipment or the projectors, but also the content, in the form of hundreds of short films.

Once again, he had to invent (and patent!) every link in the chain. And once again he managed to find huge success in the process. Edison’s name became almost synonymous with sound recordings and motion pictures in the early years of the 20th century.

It is no coincidence that Apple followed the Edison “own the whole chain” model when they rolled out the world-changing iPhone and iTunes. Edison has always been one of Steve Jobs’ heroes.

So what made Thomas Edison tick?

How did he manage to think on so many levels, and conquer problems that seemed insoluble to others?

He said that his experimental method was built on the presumption that there are no failures – that because it teaches you something, every outcome is a successful outcome.

“I never quit until I get what I'm after. Negative results are just what I'm after. They are just as valuable to me as positive results.”

“If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”

So here is my question to you:
What would you be capable of, if you knew that you could never fail?

How high could you reach if you believed that there were no wrong answers, and that you could learn as much from taking the wrong trail as by sticking to the one you knew?

Maybe more important, if you are a business leader – what could your people do if they really believed that they could not fail?

One of the greatest impediments to innovation in business today is a fear of failure that did not exist even 30 years ago. Failures cost money, and Wall Street is too often more interested in today than tomorrow. Too bad. There are very few companies out there that can truthfully say that they are unafraid to fail. And that is why there are so few real innovators.

Thomas Edison showed us that if you treat every result as a positive result, then you set yourself up for success. If that is your mindset, you literally cannot fail.

To me, that’s a pretty inspiring way to look at life, and a wonderful way to look at work!