The Greatest Experimentalist Of All Time?

​Elon Musk was once asked who his greatest inspiration was.
 
You, like most people, might have expected his response to be Nikola Tesla…
 
But surprisingly, Elon’s answer was actually Thomas Edison.

​And there’s a good reason for that… you see, lots of people like to associate Edison with a bad connotation. Especially for ruthlessly dominating Tesla in the business world from his strategic business tactics.
 
However, Elon realized something important, it’s not just being able to invent great products that change the world…
 
But being able to push those ideas, products, and services out into the world.

That’s why Thomas Edison was his ideal role model… because Edison succeeded where Tesla fell flat. Edison strived in his ability to build a business, exchange value for money so his ideas could live on for decades, and scale his business up to affect millions of lives.
 
His business spirit, paired with his natural innovation turned Edison into a world changer.

And if there’s one thing you should take away from this email…
 
It’s this: a reporter once asked Mr. Edison: “How did it feel to fail 10,000 times?”
 
Edison said: “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 10,000 steps. Great success is built on failure, frustration, and even catastrophe.”
​
This is why I consider Thomas Edison to be “The Greatest Experimentalist Of All Time.”

It’s a very common story… however, most people don’t realize just how profound it is… especially if you want your career, ideas, or business to be a success.
 
Because there are going to be times when you fail when you feel frustrated, or stuck. But in these moments you should think like Edison, Edison viewed these events was brilliant as getting one step closer…
 
Because his mindset allowed him to keep improving… keep getting closer to success… and never giving up.
 
It’s a slight adjustment. But it can have a MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE effect on your future.
 
And here’s another added bonus. An easy way to reframe an event…
 

1. Let’s say something bad happens. You’re about to land your biggest client ever… but your meeting bombs.
2. Maybe a couple minutes later, you catch yourself feeling hurt, depressed, or even questioning your ability to succeed.
3. First, acknowledge this was your natural reaction… and now ask yourself: “How can this actually be a good thing for me?”
4. Come up with a few good answers. Maybe it gave you practice so you can land an even bigger client. Maybe this guy was going to end up backstabbing you. Maybe this is just life testing you, and you’re a few steps away from winning.

Easy, right? Yes. But it’s also easy not to do… and to really benefit from this, you have to do it consistently for a long time.
 
It’s not a one and done type of deal. So maybe set a reminder on your phone telling you to look at the positives of failure, catastrophe, or anything else negative in your life.
 
Anyway, I hope you give this a shot. Let me know how it feels to practice it once you use it a few times.
 
Thank you,
 
Walid A. Abuhashim
UARF Intern
Biomedical Engineering, Class of 2021
BME Design Team Leader
MSA President 


P.S. - Do you have an idea or business that's been brewing in your mind? Want to experiment to see if it has any potential to thrive in the market place? Apply to Starting Line here http://www.uakronuarf.com/startingline.html. We just revamped our program to go from 10 steps to 5 short steps to do the early validation for your idea.