FURTHERMORE
By Gerry Moran
This week a wonderful story from Gerry Cody’s Facebook page: Sunday’s Anecdote from History. In 1896, Thomas Edison, the great inventor of the electric bulb, was working on a car design when he learned that a young man in his company had created an experimental car. Edison met this young man, Henry Ford, at a company party in New York and was thoroughly impressed by his gasoline-powered car idea.
Edison, who had been considering electricity as a power source, enthusiastically encouraged Ford, saying: “Young man, that’s the thing! You have it! I think you are on to something! I encourage you to continue your pursuits!”
Encouraged by the respected inventor, Henry Ford continued his work, eventually inventing a car that made him very wealthy.
On December 9, 1914, Edison’s laboratory and factory were destroyed by fire. At 67 years old, the damage was too extensive for insurance to cover. Before the ashes were cold, Henry Ford handed Edison a check for $750,000 with a note saying Edison could have more if needed. In 1916, Ford relocated his home next to Edison’s. When Edison was later confined to a wheelchair, Ford also got a wheelchair so they could race each other. Thomas Edison made Henry Ford believe in himself, creating a friendship for life. What a wonderful example of not being jealous of another’s success. If you can’t win a race, help the person in front of you break the record. Your candle doesn’t lose its light by lighting another. A classic example this of supporting and uplifting each other!
Edison & Ford quotes:
Edison:
“Genius is one percent inspiration, 99 percent perspiration.”
*****
“We often miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
*****
“The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-it-ness; third, common sense.”
*****
“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.”
*****
“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.”
*****
“I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that. I wish I had more years left.”
*****
“I never did a day’s work in my life, it was all fun.”
*****
“Nothing is impossible. We merely don’t know how to do it yet.”
Ford
Re his model T car: “Any colour the customer wants, as long as it’s black.”
*****
“A man’s college or university degree means nothing to me until I see what he is able to do with them.”
*****
“No one ever wins a war.”
*****
“Every man is entitled to make a damn fool of himself at least once in his lifetime.”
*****
”If we had more justice, there’d be less need of charity.”
*****
“ Worry is the most wasteful thing in the world.”
*****
“Hard knocks have a place and value but hard thinking goes further in less time.”
*****
“Music and song are, in my opinion, so fine and necessary a part of life that without them we cannot be said to really live.”
Long-shot re snap shots!
This is a long-shot. A while back I lost a Book Centre bag. Left it in some café or in some store where I was trying on trousers. Revisited those places but no sign of my bag. What’s important about this bag is the contents – a small album of photos of my son (now 38) when he was three years old. I had just assembled the album (a present for his upcoming birthday) .There was also a paper wallet containing more of those photos, handwritten on it” “IMPORTANT, photos of James in Kilkenny’s Lanes before they were renovated.”
If perchance any shop, any sales assistance knows of these photos I would be more than grateful to hear from you. Contact 087-2821605.
