By DR. VICTOR S. SIERPINA
”Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” — Thomas Edison
No matter what your life challenge, perseverance is key. We may be struggling with a serious disease or trying to prevent one through a healthier lifestyle. Keeping our goals in sight and moving to them steadily is one of life’s greatest challenges.
My childhood hero was Thomas Alvah Edison, one of the most prolific, creative and savvy inventors of all time. Trying to emulate images of his laboratories, as an 8-year-old, I created a small chemistry and physics lab in a tool shed in our backyard. The neighbors considered me a bit of a mad scientist, especially after a few rocket experiments went awry.
Despite being deaf, Edison ended up creating many inventions in sound, light, sight and power that radically reshaped his world and ultimately ours. He enhanced Alexander Graham Bell’s primitive invention of the telephone with a carbon fiber amplifier system that made this device practical. The phonograph and movies were other Edison inventions. The light bulb is his most famous out of his thousands of patents. Edison’s reply to how he kept up his search for the perfect filament material for his light bulb: “I now know 10,000 things that don’t work.”
A century later, the next major force majeure in the inventive space was Steve Jobs. The now omnipresent handheld smartphone is an incredibly powerful computer. Jobs’ vision moved computers progressively from room-sized behemoths requiring their own air-conditioning system to desktop systems and finally to something we can carry about in our pocket or purse. This little palm-held invention has infinitely more computing power than mainframe computers or desktops of less than a generation ago. They have changed the way we practice medicine, educate, communicate, compute, do business, have relationships, research, play, be entertained and explore our world.
What made these two individuals so highly productive, innovative and financially successful while creating industries that changed the world?
Beyond their genius, I would argue that it was the personal quality of perseverance.
Each of us similarly has the ability and inner quality to make changes in our world. As Emerson said in his essay on self reliance, we each have within a spark of genius, our special gift to the world, why we are here. We may not invent a world-changing technology, but can make a difference in the life of someone who is ill or disabled, a child, a student, a family, even a stranger. We can commit to quality and creativity in our workplace, home, church, community improving how things are.
When we meet with inevitable resistance and setbacks, the solution will be to adjust, continue to believe and to persevere. At the end of the day or at the end of our life we will be able to say, “I made a difference.” Go for it. Let your light shine.
”People most often fail when they are on the verge of success. So pay as much attention to the ending as to the beginning.” — Lao Tsu
Dr. Victor S. Sierpina is the WD and Laura Nell Nicholson Family Professor of Integrative Medicine and Professor of Family Medicine at UTMB.