‘Fraid so. Everything else comes so much easier if those elements are in place in the beginning… but putting them in place is only part skill, and part luck. So speed-to-fail, and then retool, can be pretty useful as well.

Tesla was a nut, but man, he was a brilliant nut. So many things he said cut right to the core of success and failure like this one.

Graham,

Yep. Practically everything the guy said after they split (he originally worked for Edison) was a shot at Edison. Some are only mildly troubled like this one but some are so bitter they’re almost funny.

He also invented the radio, and fought in the courts to be recognized instead of Marconi for years. (It was settled in his favor, but not until after his death.)

What strikes me about this quotation is that I’m sure he didn’t see the positive message in it—as you say, it’s what you make of the ideas. There’s a lot of motivation in recognizing that—and so many things he said are very motivating in just this way. But—not for him. Sad, really.

He could have made more things happen, but he was always consumed by looking at the dark side, that ideas are a dime a dozen and that it is not, in real life, always the cream that rises to the top. So what? Life is not fair. I prefer to look for how to turn wisdom like this to good advantage.

Regards,

Kelly

I don’t remember all the details, but I believe they went head-to-head with the practical aspects of generating electricity for a while there, and Tesla won. (Though Edison is still the guy most people remember, despite the frostbite… There’s got to be a secondary message in their somewhere!)

Kind of like the adage that ideas are a dime a dozen; it’s what you make of those ideas (i.e. bring it to market) that counts.

~Graham