The recent news has been littered with examples of people dying, or killing for a “cause”. But what if, instead of killing each other for a cause, we decided to live for a cause? I found a great example of someone who did just that. To best illustrate the power of what I learned, I want to ask you a simple question.
Who invented the electrical power system that we use today?
Did you say Thomas Edison? If you did you would be just like most people. When we think of electricity that is generated and distributed to our homes today we think of the “Wizard of Menlo Park”. And we are wrong.
The man who invented the system that we use today was Nicola Tesla, a man who I have been studying for years. There are many details about the story that I love and continue learning but one fact is indisputable.
Tesla, not Edison, invented the AC power system that we use today, along with the X-ray, radio, electric cars and many things that people are still trying to figure out. He was an amazing inventor whose visions’ included the helicopter, airplane hybrid and the smart phone. But he is not what is amazing in my story.
What is amazing is that you think of Thomas Edison.
Why? Is it because he was the best engineer ever?
Well no.
In fact upon his death a past employee said that watching Thomas Edison work was sad. They said that if he was charged with finding a needle in a haystack he would just begin looking without trying to find where the needle fell from, where it hit or even what type of needle it was.
Was it because his system was the best?
No.
Actually his system was very inefficient. He used DC electricity which, to put it mildly, was a sub-standard product, even for its day.
Was he a jolly old business man with a heart of gold who treated his workers with the utmost respect?
Once again the answer is no.
Then why does everybody know Edison’s name, credit him with electricity and most think Tesla is the car that Elon Musk brought to us?
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He actually had Nicola Tesla as an employee. Tesla was a genius and said he could make Edison’s motors more efficient. Edison offered to give Tesla $50,000 if he could actually do what he said he could. When Tesla did it, Edison backed out of payment and Tesla quit, only to continue inventing the biggest technological advances of his time including…..a better power system.
Then why does everybody know Edison’s name, credit him with electricity and most think Tesla is the car that Elon Musk brought to us? Why did Edison die in 1931 with a net worth of $12 million ($170 million adjusted for inflation) and Tesla died with a net worth of $0 ($0 adjusted for inflation)?
I think it is because of what happened to Edison when he was about 7 years old. He was given something that many people never get the chance to have. He found a valuable piece of the life puzzle that I think led him to his unlikely success.
He got sick.
There are differing theories on what sickness Edison actually had. But no matter the illness, he did miss a year of schooling and the general consensus is that he was on the verge of his mother’s worst nightmare on more than one occasion during this time.
So what is the point to this history lesson?
He found a reason to live!
He was made a deal of a lifetime and got the chance to make good on the deal. It’s an amazing story when you consider the full details.
But people don’t die for God, Allah, their country or the cause. They die for their belief in those things.
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After only three months of formal schooling Edison’s mother began to home school him because his teacher said he was “addled”. During his time at home he became very sick. Some sources say it was cholera others say scarlet fever and others don’t say at all what the sickness was. It was after about one year of being sick and a number of brushes with death that Thomas Edison received a gift from his father. Not a material gift but something much bigger. And, in my opinion it was the gift that steered his life.
As young Thomas Edison lay in bed one day his father entered his room. After months of worry and concern I have to imagine that his parents, Samuel and Nancy were at their wits end. They had faced losing their youngest son on more than one occasion during this time and I’m sure that Samuel would have given anything to keep his boy alive. As he talked to young Thomas he said something that I believe was the catalyst in the young boy’s future success.
“Tom, if you will live through this we will send you to the best engineering school in the country.”
Did you catch it? It right there in that sentence. I don’t know if this gave young Tom the motivation to get well but we do know that he did recover. We do know that he lived and his father had unwittingly given him something that is irreplaceable.
Samuel Edison literally gave his son a reason to live. Thomas Edison knew that if he were alive, engineering would be his purpose.
In recent months we have watched people kill each other in the name of Allah, God, keeping the peace and many other “reasons”. But people don’t die for God, Allah, their country or the cause. They die for their belief in those things. But what if those people, instead of dying for the cause, had a reason to live for it?
What if the things you are doing in your life right now were the reasons you are alive? Would you do them with more energy, work harder or pour yourself into them? Or would you be doing something totally different? What would the world look like if people lived for a cause, rather than die for one?
His purpose in life was to be an engineer and it caused him to do things differently, work harder and pour himself into his purpose.
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Thomas Edison never graduated from that great engineering school that his father referenced; he used a substandard engineering method, and did some very poor things regarding business. But one thing he did was outwork any incompetence he may have had. His purpose in life was to be an engineer and it caused him to do things differently, work harder and pour himself into his purpose.
Nicola Tesla has 278 patents in his name. Thomas Edison has 1093.
That is the result of living for a cause.
Photo: Getty Images