You know ... what?

How good is your general knowledge? Nine out of ten people will confidently confirm that Thomas Edison invented the lightbulb.

Chances are the same people will also tell you Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Henry Ford, mass production.

Neither of those “facts” is actually true.

Edison knew he couldn’t fail with his lightbulb. An English inventor called Joseph Swan came up with a workable incandescent bulb, long before Edison. Edison’s patents on the lightbulb weren’t enforceable in Britain, or in fact almost anywhere else.

Similarly, a successful telephone actually owes more to Thomas Edison than Bell. By the time Edison started tinkering with telephony, Bell had proven that something LIKE a telephone was possible, but it was Edison that perfected a serviceable microphone that saw the telephone through more than 100 years of development.

Mass production had already transformed watch and clock making, and firearms, long before Henry Ford adapted it to the Model T.

I’ve spent years studying invention and innovation. They’re fundamentally similar. The point here is that the public record reflects a bit of American cultural imperialism, but also that people confuse invention with innovation.

It’s always sounded kind of trite to me when people ask, “What would you do if you KNEW you couldn’t fail?”

It’s actually a great proposition — literally the difference between inventors and innovators.

Inventors assume they can succeed, even if they’re not always sure how, but innovators know they can ALWAYS innovate. The REALLY interesting thing is just how fast innovation follows invention. Once something is known to be "do-able," its amazing how fast it matures.

Thomas Edison, more conspicuously (if not actually better than most) was a relentless experimenter. He tinkered and experimented persistently. When it came to the lightbulb, Edison was competing with candles and kerosene lamps. His solution neither smelt bad, or set fire to bedding, so he knew he was on to a winner. Yes, Edison’s lightbulb was the result of thousands of unsuccessful experiments, but he always knew that a cheap, reliable, electric lightbulb was possible.

The point however is that when you remove the fear of failure, it’s amazing what you can achieve, and how fast you can move.

Either Richard Pearse or the Wright Brothers flew first (I’m claiming the win for New Zealand — Pearse at least had control of his craft), but those first, hesitant flights were all it took, for manned flight to really take off.

There’s a short, straight, flight path, from invention to innovation, and market maturity. Just ten years later, the principles of powered flight were well established, War was being decided from the air. From there, it was just a few short years to pressurised cabin, jet engines (Frank Whittle), and breaking the sound barrier. (Chick Yeager).

Incentives help. When you consider Edison’s reported “ten thousand” unsuccessful experiments, it helps to remember that Edison was trying to compete with George Westinghouse to market massive electricity generation plants, one lightbulb (and one electric chair!) at a time. For Edison, a popular mass-market lightbulb was everything.

Are you an inventor or an innovator? Today, the half life of information is thought to be around just twelve months. Scaling from an invention to full market maturity might be just a five year window, at the outside. Remember that there were five full generations separating the original iPod from the iPod touch — over just five years! Add another couple of years and you have the iPhone — an iPod touch for grownups with credit.

Don’t wait for perfect. Release fast, release continuously. Increment your way past invention.

There’s nothing wrong with innovation, or incrementalism. Building over is OK. It's all progress

Inventor or innovator, the key is critical thinking. Critical thinking is a process, not an event, and no less than a survival skill in todays World.

HOW you think, determines WHAT you think. Understanding how education may be letting us down, and developing the faculty for invention, innovation and critical thinking are the subjects of my book, “Nothing Is Unthinkable.”My book is available now on Amazon, or from the Author direct.

Check out this link for more on invention and innovation: https://brianfried.com/blog-post/10-steps-from-idea-to-invention/