This week’s blog features a story that I read recently and hopefully will provide a great lesson/moral for us all.

I have always enjoyed buying and listening to music and over the years I have created an eclectic music collection.

My passion started 40 years ago with vinyl records, progressed to CDs and now downloads.

I can’t begin to estimate how much pleasure and inspiration music has brought me over the years. It may not have been possible had it not have been for the efforts or invention of someone whose teacher predicted that he would never amount to much because he was a daydreamer!

The person concerned was Thomas Edison who grew up to be one of the most prolific inventors of all time and was voted man of the millennium by life magazine in 1997. He had 1093 patents registered in his name in the USA alone. He is probably most renowned for his electric light bulb invention.

Historians suggest that his best invention was the phonograph (also known as the gramophone).

Without Edison we would not have been able to listen to The Beatles, U2, Taylor Swift or Ed Sheeran.

What makes the particular device so extraordinary was not the technological breakthrough or what it would come to mean to the world but that it had been invented by a man who was profoundly deaf!

Edison developed the phonograph by biting on the sounding horn and listening through the resulting vibrations in his jaw bone. In fact, he claimed that his impaired hearing was actually an advantage because by using his biting technique, he could pick up sound qualities that were virtually undetectable to the human ear.

The fact that he couldn’t hear and therefore had to devise his biting method ultimately enabled him to refine and improve the quality of the recordings far beyond that which could have been achieved through normal hearing. Seen in this light, the resulting achievement verges on the miraculous.

The moral of the story/ lesson for us all:

Beyond the invention itself, Edison has demonstrated, through his work, a truth that can inspire us all. That is that sometimes our biggest limitations are our greatest assets.

This week why not take a moment to reflect and consider if there is an asset or strength that you could utilise more.

Also think about the teams you are involved with professionally and personally. What action steps could be taken for the team to use more of it’s potential?

This week’s quotation:

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” Thomas A. Edison.

To arrange a free no obligation consultation, please contact Stephen Pauley via the contact form or by e mail: Stephen@befirstclass.co.uk