Thomas Edison: Middleman Dollars & Cents
on Thursday, October 11, 2018Thomas Edison Money Quote saying he brought the crazy ideas of inventors to profit by turning them into marketable products or commodities. Thomas Edison said:
“I am a sort of middleman between the long-haired and impractical inventor and the hard-headed businessman who measures all things in terms of dollars and cents. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others” — Thomas Edison
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Thomas Edison is cautioning inventors that developing and commercializing inventions is an expensive process that requires serious consideration of whether an invention can actually be sold profitably on the market. He notes that unless one has significant funds to spend without regard for financial losses, pursuing inventions purely as a hobby or amusement will likely end up being an extremely costly endeavor.
Edison’s point seems to be that inventors need to think practically about commercial viability and demand for their ideas, not just the inventing process itself, or they risk wasting a great deal of money trying to bring inventions to market that have little chance of earning back development costs. His advice is to properly assess saleability and avoid treating invention as an indulgent pastime without regard for financial sustainability.
Birthday: February 11, 1847 – Death: October 18, 1931