Thomas Edison and Starting Anew

We are all aware of the fact that it took Thomas Edison over 1,000 failures to succeed in inventing the light bulb. What is more amazing is an incident that took place later on in his life.

At the age of 67, his ‘fireproof’ factory burned down. As the factory was burning down, Thomas Edison’s son, Charles, was frantically searching for his father.

When Charles found his father, he expected to see an upset man who had lost the work of many years. However, Charles later recalls the following of when he first found his father.

"Here he was, 67 years old, and everything he had worked for was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, 'Charles! Where's your mother?' When I told him I didn't know, he said, 'Find her! Bring her here! She'll never see anything like this as long as she lives.'"

The next morning, Thomas spoke to his son Charles and taught him the following lesson. Thomas said that "there's value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew."

What situations in your life have given you the chance to start anew?