10,000 experiments

Fail Your Way To Success! Why Failure Is So Wonderful!

When Thomas Edison was seeking to invent the electric light bulb, he didn't get it right the first time. Did he immediately throw a 'wobbly' and say, "I'm a big fat failure!"? Did he throw his arms up in the air and sigh, "This is just too hard. I give up!"? Did he grab a bottle of booze and become an alcoholic and live in his memories, slurring to his fellow street bums, "I *hic!* tried to invent *hic!* the electric light bulb once *hic!* .... but it didn't work *hic!* out... life sucks."?

No. No. No!

When it didn't work the first time, Edison made a note of exactly what he'd done and what components he had used. Then he made an adjustment to the experiment and tried again. And when that "failed" he made a note of that, readjusted and tried again. He kept learning from every experiment. He learned all the ways that it wouldn't work. He discovered all the chemicals and elements that wouldn't work. And each time he found a way that wouldn't work, he knew he was closer to finding a way that would work.

It took him approximately 10,000 experiments to invent the perfect set-up for the electric light bulb. There was a lot of learning to go through. Nobody had done it before. He couldn't read a book about it. He simply had to plug away, failing and learning, until he and his muckers worked out the right way to do it.

http://www.wilywalnut.com/Fail-Fast-Success-Failure-Wonderful-Edison.html