Thomas Edison and the Internet

This article is based on Michael Michalko’s research into the creative thinking exemplified by Thomas Edison. Mr. Michalko is one of the world's foremost experts on creative thinking.

Would you be willing to try something over 10,000 times to make your web site successful? What if it brought you and your company tremendous success? If Thomas Edison was still around he wouldn’t flinch at making that many mistakes with his web site.  After he accomplished whatever web site goal envisioned, he’d probably have more ingenious online ideas.

"Thomas Edison, while pondering how to make a carbon filament, was mindlessly toying with a piece of putty, turning and twisting it in his fingers, when he looked down at his hands, the answer hit him between the eyes: twist the carbon like rope. B.F. Skinner summarized a first principle of scientific methodologists: when you find something interesting, drop everything else and study it. Too many fail to answer opportunity's knock at the door because they have to finish some preconceived plan. Creative geniuses do not wait for the gifts of chance; instead, they actively seek the accidental discovery." Michalko, p 228, Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius

Edison was considered a genius and most people don’t think they’re capable of the same level of thinking.  In fact Thomas Edison never had a true formal education, most likely suffered ADD, and was almost completely deaf.  What separated Edison form other people was his creativity, tenacity, and approach to problem solving.

Thomas Edison’s methodology falls directly inline with some of the  core internet success fundamentals.  Try as many times as it takes until you achieve your online goal. If you don’t succeed analyze the failure and try it another way.  Most people respond with “I won’t waste my time trying to figure this out” or the classic, “I don’t have the time.” Those simple statements separate the successful people from the unsuccessful online and elsewhere.

You can try many things with your web site that don’t cost you any additional money, just time. Take a lesson from Edison's methodology: “You can only fail at something so many times before you are successful.”

My personal friends, who are doing amazingly well online didn’t get it right the first time or after the hundredth time. They still struggle today.  One friend gets over 40,000 visitors a day to his web site. On his best day he’ll pull 60,000 visitors.  Another successful friend sells t-shirts online.  The t-shirt business is a highly competitive online market. It took years to get both their web sites where they are today.

You don’t need money to discover profitability online.  There are tremendous resources available to people who want to succeed online. You just need to find those resources. Look for the second part of the Edisonian Internet Methodology in the future.

Additional Resources:

• Creative Thinking - Michael Michalko's Homepage
• Thomas Edison's Biography (Painting form Edison's biography)