In this fascinating exploration of one of the most celebrated and innovative minds, best-selling author Alan Axelrod cuts through the myths and reverence surrounding Edison's "genius" to show how the inventor was, in fact, an ordinary man who created extraordinary work. While many of us believe that creativity, like genius, is something that just happens by chance or destiny, Edison's life demonstrates that creativity of the very highest order can indeed be summoned up at will, and even reduced to a reliable working method and set of principles.

Alan Axelrod is the author of numerousbusiness and management books, includingEisenhower on Leadership and two BusinessWeek best sellers: Patton on Leadership and Elizabeth I, CEO. He is a popular speaker on leadership and has delivered speeches at venues as diverse as the Florida City and County Management Association in Orlando and the Excellence in Government Conference in Washington, D.C. He has been featured in Fortune, BusinessWeek, and Inc. and is a frequent guest on news programs.

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Stop Thinking and Act Like a Genius	p. 1
Life Story of a Middle American	p. 5
Getting Your Hands Dirty	p. 13
Experiment with Everything	p. 13
Become a Boy of the Nineteenth Century	p. 14
Knowing	p. 16
See It	p. 17
Working Bottom Up	p. 18
Do the Thing Itself	p. 19
Cut and Try	p. 21
Know Properties, Not Theories	p. 22
Understand Hands-On: Touch Everything	p. 24
Miss No Detail	p. 26
Know What's Going on Inside	p. 27
How to Use Everything	p. 29
Profit from Disability	p. 29
Lose No Idea	p. 30
Be Exhaustive	p. 31
Appreciate Your Ignorance	p. 32
Sharpen Your Tools	p. 33
Embrace Problems	p. 35
Problems Are Directions	p. 35
The Limits of the Problem Approach	p. 37
Use Disaster	p. 38
"No Experiments Are Useless"	p. 40
Fertile Failure	p. 41
Make Defects Their Own Remedy	p. 42
Investing	p. 45
The Ideal Executive	p. 45
Insure the Permanency of an Investment	p. 46
Invest in Assets	p. 47
Start Small, Scale Up	p. 47
Build an Invention Factory	p. 49
Support the Shop	p. 50
Build on the Weakest Points	p. 51
Become a Collector	p. 53
Entrepreneurship	p. 55
Take a Reverse Inventory	p. 55
Identify Markets	p. 55
Define Yourself	p. 56
Innovate Without Inventing	p. 56
Inspire Confidence	p. 58
Take the Credit	p. 59
Be Legendary	p. 60
Invent Systems	p. 62
Think Bigger	p. 62
Let Research Lead	p. 63
Don't Stop Experimenting	p. 64
Invite Distraction	p. 64
Time It	p. 65
Imagine the Future	p. 66
Get Between	p. 67
Creating Your Customers	p. 69
Get the News	p. 69
Give Praise to the Dissatisfied Customer	p. 70
Educate the Customer	p. 70
Learn the Market	p. 71
Niche Thinking: Find a Small Space to Make It Big	p. 73
Offer an Edge	p. 75
Move into a More Hospitable Environment	p. 76
Sell Innovation	p. 77
The Limits of Innovation	p. 78
Become a Brand	p. 79
No Such Thing as Overproduction	p. 80
Making Rain	p. 81
Be Skeptical, Never Cynical	p. 81
Get the Biggest Picture	p. 82
Design What You Need	p. 83
Create New Uses for Whatever You Have	p. 84
"Guard Against Results"	p. 85
Exploit the Unexpected	p. 86
Grinding It Out	p. 89
Learn a Lesson from The Temperate Life	p. 89
Know the Known	p. 90
Want Some Real Labor? Try Thinking	p. 91
"Genius Is 1 Percent Inspiration and 99 Percent Perspiration"	p. 92
Work the Problem	p. 93
Redesign	p. 94
Don't Stop with Version 1	p. 94
The Two Masters	p. 95
Try a Kaleidoscopic Approach	p. 96
Exploit the Details	p. 97
Speed	p. 98
Plod	p. 99
Unlimited Incentive	p. 100
If At First You Do Succeed, Try Again Anyway	p. 101
Managing	p. 103
Never Neglect Logistics	p. 103
"Mean to Succeed"	p. 103
Plan for Spontaneity	p. 104
Create a Shop	p. 105
Start a School	p. 106
Make Creativity a Predictable Process	p. 107
Create Standards	p. 109
Subdivide, Delegate, Empower	p. 110
Harvest Complaints	p. 112
Favor Fluid Structures	p. 113
Keep Score	p. 113
Faking Genius	p. 117
Model It	p. 117
Get on the Train	p. 118
To Innovate, Imitate	p. 121
Do It Better	p. 123
Create by Analogy	p. 123
Make the Problem the Solution	p. 126
Analogy Again	p. 130
Another Problem, Another Solution	p. 136
New Wholes from Old Parts	p. 136
Better to Elaborate Than Replace?	p. 137
Prefer Evolution to Revolution	p. 138
Make the New Familiar	p. 139
Work Beyond the Cutting Edge	p. 140
An Edison Chronology	p. 143
Two Hundred Representative Patents	p. 155
Suggested Reading	p. 165
The Author	p. 169
Index	p. 171
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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