Why Thomas Edison was a terrible fisherman

Posted by / August 10th, 2015 / No responses

I heard a great story today about Thomas Edison which I wanted to share with all you busy business owners out there.

Thomas Edison was a genius scientist who is credited with inventing the phonograph, the electric light bulb and the motion picture camera.

But, he was a terrible fisherman. He used to go fishing every day and he would fish for at least an hour but he never caught any fish.

You would think that such a genius would question his abilities and try different methods to get better at fishing, wouldn’t you? Why keep doing the same thing day after day with no results and no evidence of getting better at this hobby of choice?

And indeed, some of his friends and peers wondered the same thing. One day, a friend asked him “Thomas, why do you keep going fishing every day? You are so bad at it, you never catch any fish. Why not try a different hobby?”

And he replied “I never catch any fish because I never use any bait. Because when you fish without bait, people don’t bother you and neither do the fish. It provides me my best time to think.”

So you see – it was no coincidence that one of the world’s most eminent scientist was a terrible fisherman. He understood the important of space, slowing down and giving himself opportunity to use his brain to create and innovate.

Interestingly, it is said that whilst fishing with a bamboo pole he had a flash of genius which made him try bamboo as the filament for the first ever electric light bulb.

So here’s my question to you, busy business owners. When was the last time that you set aside time in your diary for quiet, creative, do-nothing time? Do you encourage your team members to take their lunch hours outside eating on a bench? Do you ever hold a team meeting which starts with a few minutes meditative silence? When did you and your partner last sit on the sofa together and share a slow half hour of quiet time with a glass of wine?

It seems to me that the 21st century world in which we do business has got way too busy for creative genius. I just finished reading “Thrive” by Arianna Huffington and if you are feeling like your life has got too busy, then this book would give you some great ideas to slow down.

Could we all practise slowing down and letting the genius in us come out? What would become possible?

Perhaps the reason I loved the Thomas Edison story so much is because I have experienced in the last few weeks the pleasure of spending two days with my team slowing down and simply being together, creating some inspired business plans for the year ahead. On the first day we felt uncomfortable, like we hadn’t achieved enough…hadn’t covered enough ground…needed to move faster…needed to switch our phones back on and check our emails. By the end of the second day, we had laughed together, cried (well – I did, anyway), scribbled and doodled, eaten cake, day dreamed, paced and slouched, and created some marvellous abstract ideas and shared vision. And we went home to our families full of energy and banter and love.

The Serenwood ethos is based entirely around having fun working with interesting clients, and creating a work-life balance which supports our people to have fulfilled careers doing what they love – which is making a difference to growing businesses. That ethos includes slowing down and making time for our clients – to give them space to share their challenges. Together we will find the answers whilst we curiously probe and explore the art of the possible.

Hey – if you want to do some slow, terrible fishing with us, then get in touch.

Who knows what lightbulbs are waiting to be switched on?

hello@serenwood.co.uk

0113 225 2110

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( credit: Rich Litvin www.richlitvin.com)