Nov. 5, 2009 — Excellent mistakes

I am intrigued with Thomas Edison, whose inventions were many and included such things as electricity and the incandescent light bulb. He is the poster child for knowing the power of making excellent mistakes.

He tried over 5,000 different materials before he found the right one for a light bulb that worked. His lists of inventions included many, many flops.

In my favorite story of Edison, his laboratory burned down one night. Edison was 67 years old and everything he had worked for seemed to go up in smoke. The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said: “There’s value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew.”

Just a thought. I'm Sid Batts from First Presbyterian Church in downtown Greensboro, fpcgreensboro.org.