“I have not failed,” said Thomas Edison. He was trying to get a light bulb to work—again. “I've just found 1,000 ways that won't work.”

That story is popular. There are so many versions of it, it’s almost a tall tale. But Edison wasn’t the only person involved in the invention of the light bulb. Other inventors were trying to turn electricity into light too.

The light bulb changed the way people live and even the hours they worked. No longer did they have to rely on things that started fires, like candles or gas lamps. Such an important invention took more than one brain. A whole team of Edison’s researchers tested a lot of light bulbs before they got the right one. In just two years, they tried more than 3,000! They had questions to answer. What would they put inside the bulbs? They needed something that could burn for a long, long time. They tried cotton, linen, and wood. Finally, they settled on bamboo. Bamboo could burn for more than 1,200 hours. Modern incandescent bulbs use a thin wire made of tungsten metal.

How do you know when someone has a good idea? In the movie Despicable Me, when Gru gets an idea he says, “light bulb!” If you’re watching cartoons, a light bulb appears above a character’s head. Have you ever thought of this? Before Edison and the other inventors, no one would have imagined such a thing. God made us to work hard. Often, that hard work starts with a good idea.

“Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men.”—Colossians 3:23