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INSIDE This Issue
The Apple, the Tree, and the Isle of Skye 1
Why Your Teeth Might Want a Backup Plan 2
3
Rediscover Yourself With Hobbies That Heal, Create, and Inspire
Testimonial 3
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Roasted Cauliflower Steaks With Romesco Sauce
Cement Saves a Scientific Legend 4
From Rock Bottom to Reinvention Edison’s Iron Will
Despite his rightful place in history books as one of the world’s greatest minds, legendary inventor Thomas Edison was a consistent failure … and that was a great thing. By the time Edison died in 1931 at 84, he had experienced a life steeped in as many devastating defeats as world-changing ambitions. That he’s remembered today for his scientific milestones and not his epic misfires represents the spirit of “failing forward,” the concept of embracing failure as an opportunity to pursue new ideas and directions for success.
and $2 million in his own iron mining operation in northern New Jersey. Unfortunately for the maverick inventor, several other iron plants launched around the same time, which caused the value of iron to drop considerably and led to severe financial losses. CEMENT SEALS SUCCESS Instead of accepting defeat when his iron operation went under, Edison turned his attention to another critical material: cement. While running his iron mine, he regularly sold waste sand to cement makers for additional revenue. Seeing an opportunity to expand further into this market, he launched the Edison Portland Cement Company, repurposing equipment and technology he had used for iron mining. The venture was a huge success, allowing Edison to pay off his massive debts and become one of the leading forces behind the use of cement in American infrastructure. While the catastrophic failure of his iron mining endeavor would have crushed most entrepreneurs, Edison thrived by pivoting to new ventures. He never gave up. His inventions proved his brilliance, but his fearlessness in the face of failure demonstrated his resilience.
“I have not failed,” Edison famously insisted. “I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”
Here’s one example of how he turned a significant misfire into an unmitigated triumph. FROM IRON TO INSOLVENCY Edison held more than 1,000 patents in his lifetime, and many of his inventions toward the end of the 1800s relied heavily on iron as a source material. When the cost of the metal began to rise, he attempted to address the problem by investing more than 10 years
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