Having one's own shop, working on projects of one's own choosing,
making enough money today so one could do the same tomorrow.
These were the modest goals of Thomas Edison when he struck out on his own as full-time inventor and manufacturer.
The grand goal was nothing other than enjoying the autonomy of entrepreneur
and forestalling a return to the servitude of employee.
Edison's need for autonomy was primal and unvarying.
It would determine the course of his career from the beginning to the end.
That was an excerpt from the book that we're going to be talking about today.
The title is The Wizard of Menlo Park,
How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World, and the author is Randall Strauss.
It's the main source material for today's discussion
as we look into the life of one of the most famous people of the 19th century.
Let's go ahead and start with the part from the introduction of the book.
Thomas Alva Edison is the patron saint of the electric light, electric power, and music on demand.
The grandfather of the wired world.
The great-grandfather of iPod Nation.
He was the person who flipped the switch.
Before Edison, there was darkness.
After Edison, media-saturated modernity.
Edison is famously associated with the beginnings of movies, which is where the modern business of celebrity begins.