133. This amazing man patented an astonishing number of inventions during his life. As a child, however, and partly related to a disability he had, he was painfully shy and wanted to become an actor to escape his reality. Who was he?
From Quiz Shy, Not Retiring
Answer:
Thomas Edison
Edison (1847-1931) was partially deaf from a young age. This was the result of a bout of scarlet fever, and recurring ear infections which were left untreated, when he was small. This inability to hear greatly hampered his short foray into world of public education. His teacher, during the extremely short period of education Edison had (only three months), put the boy's lack of attention down to being mentally slow. If only he knew. It was Edison's mother who oversaw his education from that point, and he remembered this with the deepest gratitude all his life. However, the fact that he was deaf and often missed what was going on around him isolated the child, and led to the development of his acute shyness.
His dreams of becoming an actor were put aside because of his deafness-related high-pitched voice, and his shyness. Instead, Edison tried various alternative forms of employment, always preferring those that gave him a great deal of solitude. This solitude allowed him the peace and uninterrupted tranquility to work on his experiments on the side. He would go on to become one of the world's foremost inventors. On his death, he had more than 1,000 patents registered under his name, and had the amazing record of having founded fourteen companies to produce these. Thomas Edison - a shy man with a hearing impairment, who turned his disability to an advantage that has ultimately benefited most of mankind, in one way or another, ever since.
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