Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

10.2. Lesson 91: Get on the Train

Thomas Edison was a historical, flesh-and-blood figure; he was born on February 11, 1847, in Milan, Ohio, and died on October 18, 1931, in West Orange, New Jersey. But he also was and remains an icon of American popular culture, one of a small pantheon of such icons. Consider this: An icon is a symbol rich in meaning and suggestion but short on specific detail. Few of us can fill so much as five minutes retelling the life story of George Washington, but most of us remember something about his chopping down a cherry tree or maybe even throwing a silver dollar across the Potomac. To most, Ben Franklin is little more than a picture of a wide-eyed boy entering colonial Philadelphia with two puffy bread rolls under ...