Thomas Edison’s laboratory was virtually destroyed by fire in December, 1914. The damage exceeded $2 million but the buildings were only insured for $238,000 because they were thought to be fireproof. Edison’s life’s work went up in flames that December night.
At the height of fore, Edison’s 24-year-old son, Charles, frantically searched for his father among the smoke and debris. He finally found him, calmly watching.
“My heart ached for him,” said Charles. ” He was 67 – no longer a young man- and everything was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, ‘Charles, where’s your mother? Find her. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.”
The next morning, Edison looked the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster. Thank God we can start anew.”
Three weeks after the fire, Edison managed to deliver his first photograph.
Success is built primarily not on success but on failures, frustration, sometime even calamities and how we deal with it, and turn it around.
– Summer M. Redstone
