Period 47 – Success

Story

Success: Thomas Edison

Thomas Alva Edison was a gifted child who possessed a spirit of enquiry – he wished to know the how and why of things around him by asking others and then by conducting experiments. No one could believe what all he wanted to do. But his patience and self effort won him success and fame as a great inventor.

One day little Thomas Alva came home from school crying. He handed over a note to his mother and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”

On the note was written, “Your son cannot attend school. He pesters his teachers by asking silly questions. He is a fool.”

Little Thomas Alva was labeled a fool. But his mother was not worried. His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: “Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.”

She consoled him and said, “Don’t cry son. I will be your teacher.” She knew that her son was not a fool. He was only curious to know that how and why of things.

She remembered, how he had once sat on some eggs like a hen, thinking that the eggs would hatch and chickens would come out. But instead of hatching the eggs got squashed.

He had also once set aflame the barn just to watch the power of fire. Once he crushed some worms into milk and made his maid servant drink it.

Sound’s bad doesn’t it? Must have tasted bad too. Little Thomas Alva had seen birds eating worms and thought that he could make his maid servant flap her hands and fly away, by making her eat worms.

These incidents may sound queer but they threw light on Thomas Alva’s inquisitive nature, his curiosity to know how things happened, why things happened. He performed many experiments striving hard to find out answers to the many questions arising in his mind. This very little boy, who was called fool by his classmates and a dreamer by the society grew up to become the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison.

After many, many years, after Edison’s mother died and he was now one of the greatest inventors of the century, one day he was looking through old family things. Suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up.

Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.”Thomas Alva Edison was a gifted child who possessed a spirit of enquiry – he wished to know the how and why of things around him by asking others and then by conducting experiments. No one could believe what all he wanted to do. But his patience and self effort won him success and fame as a great inventor.

One day little Thomas Alva came home from school crying. He handed over a note to his mother and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me and told me to only give it to my mother.”

On the note was written, “Your son cannot attend school. He pesters his teachers by asking silly questions. He is a fool.”

Little Thomas Alva was labeled a fool. But his mother was not worried. His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read the letter out loud to her child: “Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.”

She consoled him and said, “Don’t cry son. I will be your teacher.” She knew that her son was not a fool. He was only curious to know that how and why of things.

She remembered, how he had once sat on some eggs like a hen, thinking that the eggs would hatch and chickens would come out. But instead of hatching the eggs got squashed.

He had also once set aflame the barn just to watch the power of fire. Once he crushed some worms into milk and made his maid servant drink it.

Sound’s bad doesn’t it? Must have tasted bad too. Little Thomas Alva had seen birds eating worms and thought that he could make his maid servant flap her hands and fly away, by making her eat worms.

These incidents may sound queer but they threw light on Thomas Alva’s inquisitive nature, his curiosity to know how things happened, why things happened. He performed many experiments striving hard to find out answers to the many questions arising in his mind. This very little boy, who was called fool by his classmates and a dreamer by the society grew up to become the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison.

After many, many years, after Edison’s mother died and he was now one of the greatest inventors of the century, one day he was looking through old family things. Suddenly he saw a folded paper in the corner of a drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up.

Edison cried for hours and then he wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Edison was an addled child that, by a hero mother, became the genius of the century.”

Never Give up. Be confident. Remember – (be it life, sports, career or any competition) – any battle is won twice – FIRST IN YOUR HEAD…….