Lesson #2 - FIRST ISN’T ALWAYS BEST.
John Fitch was the first to operate a steamboat service, not the commonly presumed Robert Fulton. But Fulton learned from Fitch’s mistakes and triumphed on a different river at a more propitious time. Similarly with Henry Ford, who was late to automobile production, Charles Goodyear with vulcanized rubber and Isaac Singer and his sewing machine. Mark Gumz at Olympus has the point: “Understanding comes from failure; success comes from understanding failure and acting upon this knowledge.” The path beaten to somebody’s door will reveal the potholes.
From the book THEY MADE AMERICA by Harold Evans, with Gail Buckland and David Lefer. (c) 2004 Little, Brown & Co.