“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
— Thomas Edison
If he hadn’t failed, Thomas Edison might not have become America’s most well-known and prolific innovator. Like most entrepreneurs, when Edison first started his career, he was certain he had observed a fundamental problem he could solve….
…Edison learned the value of rapidly iterating to get to the solution customers needed. For example, in developing a commercially viable light bulb, Edison actually went through over ten thousand prototypes before getting it right. Had Edison followed the traditional model of product-development model of writing a product specification, building a product, then trying to sell it, his competitors would have beat him by decades. Later Edison became famous for saying “I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” You will find a way that works too ….
Read the full article in Forbes
