A Tomorrow Mind

On December 9, 1914 Thomas Edison’s factory in West Orange, New Jersey, was virtually destroyed by fire. Much of Edison’s life work went up in smoke and flames that December night. At the height of the fire, Edison's 24 -year -old son, Charles, searched frantically for his father. He finally found him calmly watching the fire, his face glowing in the reflection, his white hair blowing in the wind. He was 67 and no longer a young man and everything was going up in flames. When he saw Charles, he shouted, "Charles, where's your mother ?" When he told him that he didn't know, he said, 'Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.'" The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, "There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew." After the fire, the New York Globe wrote that the mind of the great achiever, Thomas Edison, was a to-morrow mind. "For when asked about his loss the night of the fire," the article said, "Edison replied, 'I am not thinking about that. I am planning for tomorrow. The mind of a yesterday is a failure, but the courage of a mind of tomorrow is a success.'