Cause Effect Essay

Success in the Light of Thomas Edison

From Beethoven to Bill Gates, one may be tempted to attribute their success to their extraordinary talents or genius. Yet, when it comes down to it, how much truth does the assumption hold? How many times was Beethoven told that he was hopeless as a composer before leaving an enormous footprint on the musical plane? How many times did Bill Gates fail before finally reaching the pinnacle of his career? While some may be truly famous because of those orthodox qualities, many peaked with a myriad of other virtues. In particular, the three causes of Thomas Edison's success are determination, passion and perspective.

First of all, Thomas Edison succeeded because of his tenacity in his endeavors. An excellent case in point of his resoluteness is the fact that he devoted five straight days and nights, barely gaining any sleep but laboring like an unstoppable machine in his laboratory in Menlo Lab in New Jersey to create what would be considered the spark of the blazing flame in this modern electric era (Woodside, 2007). Additionally, Thomas Edison did not concede easily. To illustrate, he was so driven in perfecting the light bulb that he conducted 10,000 experiments to accomplish his mission (Dyer, 1998).

Apart from that, his accomplishments were fueled by his great fervor for his work. As a young child, Thomas Edison had always been interested in electricity due to his visits to the telegraph stations (Dyer, 1998). Consequently, his passion towards electricity was so strong that he went out of his way to get telegraphic supplies, which were rare at that time and experimented so much that he eventually managed to construct his own telegraphic system at home (1998).

Moreover, his fascination with electricity was so intense that in the process of inventing the light bulb, he made his search for the perfect material to produce the filament for his light bulb worldwide and spent all his time testing with the materials he had collected (D P, 2000).

Lastly, his outlook rendered him victorious in his strive for excellence. Thomas Edison had always been an optimist which had always been apparent in the way he took his failures. For example, when an ore-separating undertaking of his failed, it costed him a hefty sum of money amounting up to $4 million (D P, 2000). However, instead of getting downhearted by it, he simply shrugged it off by stating that he had the most wonderful time spending the money and got back on his feet in the business of cement (2000). In addition, he overcame many adversities in his career with his positive views. For instance, when a fire devastated his phonograph factory, his reaction was golden. As opposed to feeling miserable about it, he simply saw it as a chance to rebuild the phonograph factory with the most current technologies (Dyer, 1998).

In essence, the factors for Thomas Edison's mountainous achievements are his perseverance, ardor and mentality in his ambition. Therefore, success requires more than sheer intelligence and natural aptitude. It requires plethora of hard work and dedication just as Thomas Edison had demonstrated in his lifetime.

References

1. Woodside, M. (2007). Thomas A. Edison: The man who lit up the world (p. 1). New York:

Sterling.

2. Dyer, F., & Martin, T. (1998). Edison, his life and inventions. Charlottesville, Va.:

University of Virginia Library.

3. D P, S. (2000). Thomas Alva Edison. His Contributions to Lighting and Power Generation,

60-70.