Thomas Edison - 1 Brilliant Mind, 2 Key Inventions, and 3 Entrepreneurial Lessons

Entrepeureka!
Sep 17, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Dec 2, 2020

Quick Facts!

Thomas Edison:

Is one of the greatest inventors in history.
Has acquired over 1,093 U.S patents (Alux.com, 2019).
Has launched over 100 businesses and partnerships (McCormick & Israel, 2005).
General Electric, a company that he partially founded, is worth billions of dollars today (Alux.com, 2019).
A few of his inventions include the phonograph, the electric lightbulb, the kinetoscope, and the electric pen (Conot & Josephson, 2020).

His Inventions!

While Thomas Edison invented many things during his lifetime, his most important and impactful inventions were the electric lightbulb and the phonograph.

Electric Lightbulb (1879):

Many scientists had worked on inventing an electric lightbulb before him, but Edison was the one who perfected the design and made it safe to be used and sold ("Significant Contributions to Physics", n.d.).
The design consists of a wire filament (a thin piece of metal) inside a glass bulb.
Electricity heats the wire filament until it is hot enough to produce light.
He initially used platinum wire filaments because of their high melting point. However, the lamp only worked for a few hours with this choice of metal (“Edison’s Lightbulb”, n.d.).
After extensive experimentation, he found that carbon was the best option. The first lightbulb that he designed with this filament burned for over 13 hours ("Significant Contributions to Physics", n.d.).

Phonograph (1877):

The first machine that was capable of recording and reproducing sound ("Significant Contributions to Physics", n.d.).
The idea came to him while he was working on improving the telegraph and the telephone.
The machine consisted of a cylinder with two needles. One needle was used to record sound, and the other was used to play it back.
The recording needle indented the sound vibrations picked up by the mouthpiece onto the cylinder ("Edison Invents the Phonograph", n.d.).
The cylinder was initially made using tin foil but was later replaced with wax ("Significant Contributions to Physics", n.d.).
1878: Edison launched the Edison Speaking Phonograph Company to sell this invention.
Fun fact: His first words to the phonograph were, “Mary had a little lamb” ("Edison Invents the Phonograph", n.d.).

3 Entrepreneurial Lesson That We Can Learn From Edison!

While Edison is widely recognized as a brilliant inventor, he was also an incredible businessman, and there are many entrepreneurial lessons that we can learn from him.

1) Be creative with your investor presentation

Edison knew how to make a lasting impression on the investors that he met with for his electric light bulb.
He set up the meeting at a luxurious restaurant. He met the investors outside, then brought them up through a dark staircase into a dark ballroom. At the right moment, he flipped a switch to have the ballroom fully illuminated with his electric light bulbs!
This was a very creative way for him to introduce his invention, and it blew the investors away (“Thomas Edison’s 7 Billion Dollar Marketing and Promotions”, n.d.)

2) Know your target market

Edison’s very first patented invention was an electric vote recorder. It was intended to make the voting process in the legislature a lot faster and more efficient.
However, the legislators were not interested in the invention as they wanted to keep voting a slow process. This gave them more time to persuade fellow legislators and influence their voting decisions.
Edison did not have a good understanding of his target market and therefore was not able to invent a device that fit their needs.
He then decided that he would “never waste time inventing things that people would not want to buy,” a mindset which was crucial in developing successful inventions later on (“Thomas Edison Biography: Success Story of Inventor and Businessman”, 2020).

3) Learn to Admire Discomfort

Edison once said, "Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress” (Daum, 2020).
This quote helps remind us that the feeling of discomfort that comes with pursuing our goals is a necessary component of the process, as growth is always accompanied by unease and discontent.
This is one of the most important lessons that you must remember when launching your entrepreneurial venture. Anytime you feel anxious or restless, remind yourself that these feelings are merely an indication of growth and progress.