“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration” – Thomas Edison

Tinay is writing a novel. She has developed the characters, the storyline, the climax, and even the sweet ending of the story…in her mind. In real life, she has only written two pages. Every day, she sits at her computer to write, she waits for the words to come tumbling out of her mind onto the paper but nothing happens. She’s waiting for inspiration but only meets with disappointment.

In actuality, writing a novel, building a house, or creating a masterpiece take a lot more than inspiration. It requires perspiration which comes from hard work. Thomas Edison said, “genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” He worked very hard on every one of his inventions trying many times and failing before finally getting it right. On the light bulb alone, Edison and his associates tried at least three thousand different theories before they could develop an efficient incandescent lamp. It took hours, days, months, and even years before they arrived at their goal of creating a light bulb.

It definitely took a lot of hard work. Sure the idea to create a light bulb started with inspiration; ultimately, it took a lot of perspiration to bring it to reality. So, we can also learn from Edison’s example to do the work necessary to bring our inspired ideas to life.

Go for it!