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4 Secret Messages on Success from Thomas Edison

12 words, and a lot between the lines

All my life I’ve wanted a mentor, and I still feel I would have been more successful if I had had one. Mentorship is a conversation. You talk about your ideas, and your mentor tells you things you need to know.

You may not have a full mentorship with someone you get to know personally, but you can find hundreds of virtual mentors between the pages of books (or web pages) everywhere. They can’t listen to your ideas, but they can still tell you things you need to know.

And the harder you listen, the more you’ll learn.

What Edison said

Consider this quote by Thomas Edison:

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

Two sentences. Twelve words. But there’s a lot more there.

What I learned

Start with what Edison said. Then ask: Why did he say it that way? What was he assuming? What had he learned? What did it mean to him?

Here’s what I got by doing a deep reading on Edison’s words:

1. He knew that how he saw himself was essential to reaching his goal. He did not say, “I’m a failure” (that’s jumping to an incorrect conclusion). He did not even say, “I’ve failed 10,000 times” (that’s better, but it’s still self-defeating).“I have not failed” is merely a fact. It observes the past but says nothing about the future.
2. Similarly, he knew the power of seeing your situation in a way that helps you succeed. He probably thought something like this: I am after an enormous goal, so I will have to work a lot and it will not be easy. Setbacks and dead ends are a normal and inevitable part of the journey, but learning from them will help me succeed, and faster. If I refuse to quit and focus on the long term instead of today’s setbacks, I will reach my goal.
3. He knew that judgmental words and harsh opinions are deadly, and that objective words and statements generate energy and clarity. I’m a failure and I’ve failed 10,000 times are opinions that would kill anybody. I have not failed and I have found 10,000 things that do not work are true, but they don’t wound like harsh self-talk.
4. He trusted himself and his skills, and he ignored the self-defeating opinions of others. Can you imagine how many people told him It’s impossible and You’re wasting your time? How many people smirked and shook their head and called him crazy, fool, idiot? He knew to rely on hard work and his intellect instead.

There’s a lot more out there

Countless people have enriched their lives by studying the words of people who had something to say, and you can do this too. Here’s one to start on:

Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.
— Jim Rohn

Be curious. You may be surprised by what you find.

Medium’s decision to allow 1 to 50 👏🏽s is permanently broken. I think of clapping as a 1-to-5-stars rating, with 10 claps = 1 star.

When I read an article, I give it 10 claps, or 1 star. If I like it, I give it 20, or 2 stars — or more. Not clapping at all feels bad. Please help me out👏🏽👏🏽. Thanks!