Rezeki and Thomas Edison

Earlier this week, a letter arrived for me. I've been getting lots of letters as of late. Offer letters from colleges I have never even heard of (how did they even get my address?). But this letter was different because it actually had a stamp in the top right hand corner instead of the words "Bayaran Pos Jelas" or "Postage Paid". I teared open the envelope. Jemputan Sebagai Penerima Anugerah Hari Kecemerlangan SPM/STAM dan STPM Dun Bangi 2012. Kata orang, rezeki jangan ditolak. So while I was flattered and embarrassed and didn't really want to go, I called the number listed and told them I would be attending.

I did not expect to see people I knew there - I don't know, because they seem like they're too busy to go to these things? - so I was surprised to see quite a few familiar faces. Some Murni girls, Amanah girls, Ali and, if you remember, Fikri. Yang pindah lepas PMR tu. It was worth waking up early to go to PKNS and sitting through a motivational talk, which wasn't boring and actually fun and would have been more enjoyable were it not for the stomachache I was having (perut ni memang tak boleh makan awal pagi sangat) for RM100 and making friends with Visha who sat next to me, who laughed at my name and didn't know what STAM is.

But that is not the bulk of this entry. If this entry was to be likened to a full course meal, the two paragraphs above are only the appetizer. The main course is Thomas Edison. Pn. Sharifah, who gave the motivational talk, talked about him and I found him interesting.

Who doesn't know Thomas Edison, hereby referred to as Tom, the inventor of the light bulb, right? But did you know that he had a hearing difficulty that progressed until he was almost completely deaf? That he only learned to talk at the age of four? That some modern medical authorities speculate he might have had a learning disability?

Tom only went to school for three months. It was all his teacher could take. Tom asked too many questions and the teacher thought him self-centred. The teacher also said, due to his unusually large head, that there was obviously something wrong with Tom's brain. Luckily, Tom had an educated mother who quickly noticed her son's genius and decided to home-school him. His father, too, encouraged him to read the great classics and gave him ten cents for each one he completed. By age 11, Tom was reading works on practical chemistry and world history.

He was 32 when he invented the light bulb, although to be specific, he didn't invent the light bulb. The idea of the light bulb had existed for 50 years. What Tom did was improve upon it to create a practical light bulb, that could actually be used commercially. The time consuming part of this endeavour was finding just the right material for the filament that would work, and I will get to that in a bit, but it's also worth mentioning that to create practical electric lights, he also had to develop several other elements like a durable light bulb, the parallel circuit (hey, we learned that in school!), safety fuses and insulating materials, and light sockets with on-off switches.

Now on to that filament. Tom tried many many times to find the right material. Some say he tried 3000 times. Some 5000. Others even 10 000. There are so many different opinions that it's almost a myth but for sure it took a lot of attempts before he finally succeeded. How did he find the determination, the strength, to not give up after so many failures? Tom said, "Why would I feel like a failure? Why would I ever give up? I now know definitely over 9000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp."

I have no words to counter him. I can only salute him, take my hat off to him if I were wearing one. Thank you, Tom!