Friday Inspiration – Thomas Edison

This will be the first of many entries as a part of a weekly post series about where I find inspiration. Inspiration not only for my artistic endeavors, but inspiration that motivates me and encourages me to persevere through criticism (someone else’s or my own). My first entry, as is stated in my title, is the one and only lightbulb inventing, Thomas Edison. Mr. Edison may not be someone that jumps to the front of everyone’s mind when they think of creative inspiration or motivation. He does, however, come to the forefront of my mind as a source of inspiration on staying motivated and persevering through trials. About a month ago I was reading a book in my classroom about inventions. In this book Edison, obviously for the invention of the lightbulb, was mentioned and talked about. In the information that was given about Edison and what he invented, the book stated that Edison failed 1,200 times before successfully inventing the lightbulb. I was quite astonished at that insane figure, as having not heard that fact before. From my own education I knew who invented the lightbulb, but in my mind I never gave much thought as to the serious amount of time and effort that went into the invention of the lightbulb. After reading that it took Edison 1200 tries to create a working lightbulb I really had to take a step back and look at what I have attempted in my life and ask myself, “Did I try my hardest? Would I ever keep trying something that had already failed 1,199 times before?” In asking myself these questions I came to the conclusion that I had not failed at anything anywhere near the astronomical number of 1,200 and kept going. In fact, up until this point I was at a serious stalemate between my dream of being a children’s author and consigning myself to failure before I had even attempted to be published. Fear is what causes me to procrastinate, get lost in the depths of the internet, fear had me quitting before I even began. I have not even failed in an attempt to be published, yet I was basically quitting by not continuing to edit my writings or finish my illustrations. Then I read about Edison and it all clicked, persevere and keep pushing until that bulb finally turns on.   D|K

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