One day Thomas Edison came home from school with a letter from his teacher.
Asking his mother to read it, her eyes welled with tears as she said these words:
“Your son is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have good enough teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself.”
Thomas Edison went on to become one of the most consequential inventors and creators of the 20th Century.
Decades later, as he was rummaging through his closets, he found the worn, folded letter from that day after school, those many years ago.
This time, his eyes
flooded with tears as he read the words his teacher ACTUALLY wrote:
“Your son is mentally deficient. We cannot let him attend our school anymore. He is expelled.”
Would Edison have been able to overcome that condemnation from his school and risen above the label of mentally inadequate?
Maybe.
But, while I don’t advocate lying, credit his mother with the wherewithal to encourage and talk “up” to and about her son, not down.
Words matter. Words have power.
Use yours to give life and inspire.
The next Edison may be in your circle.