Thomas Edison

The person interested in success has to learn to view failure as a healthy, inevitable part of the process of getting to the top.
     - Dr. Joyce Brothers -

Thomas Alva Edison was the most prolific inventor in American history. He amassed a record 1,093 patents covering key innovations and minor improvements in a wide range of fields, including telecommunications, electric power, sound recording, motion pictures, primary and storage batteries, and mining and cement technology. He broadened the notion of invention to encompass what we now call innovation-invention, research, development, and commercialization and invented the industrial research laboratory.

Edison's role as an innovator is evident not only in his two major laboratories at Menlo Park and West Orange in New Jersey but in more than 300 companies formed worldwide to manufacture and market his inventions, many of which carried the Edison name, including some 200 Edison illuminating companies.  But he also met his share of hardships.

In his early years, teachers told Edison he was, "too stupid to learn anything." Work was no better, as he was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough. Even as an inventor, Edison made 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at inventing the light bulb. 1,000 tries...imagine if he had given up.