Edison on Innovation: 102 Lessons in Creativity for Business and Beyond

3.1. Lesson 13: Profit from Disability

Edison, the man who invented—among many other things—the phonograph and an improved system of telephone transmission, was hard of hearing and sometimes even referred to himself as deaf. Indeed, his hearing steadily deteriorated over the course of his life, so that, near its end, his condition did approach total deafness.

Most authorities believe that his hearing loss was the result of an early bout with scarlet fever and a childhood history of colds and other upper respiratory disorders, which led to fluid retention in the middle ear. Popular mythology—partly created by Edison himself—ascribes his hearing problems to a drubbing he took at the hands of Alexander Stevenson, conductor on the Grand Trunk Western ...