True to Microsoft’s latest tagline, “Empowering us all,” this company – since it was started on April 4^th, 1975, 41 years ago to be exact – has been empowering idea people from all corners of the earth with its technology.

The company got its start thanks to Bill Gates and Paul Allen, two childhood friends who combined their knowledge and expertise to create a company that made computer software in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The production of microprocessors and software sprouted the name for the company, “Micro-Soft.”

Though that name looks like a company that we know today despite that little hyphen, it only took three years for the hyphen to be dropped from the name. But, the hyphen wasn’t the only thing that dropped out. In fact, Gates dropped out of Harvard and Allen left his programming job in Boston to pursue their newest venture.

As with any new business, the first few years proved to be a whirlwind. In those years, the innovative duo both launched and licensed their MS-DOS operating system to IBM. Unfortunately, just as there were many highs, there were also a few lows in the beginning. One of which was the medical reason that forced Allen to leave the company.

But, despite these hurdles, Gates and Microsoft forged on and in 1985, the company unveiled their Windows operating system and went public with their announcement.

Almost instantaneously, the company stock and sales took off to over $60 million, which made Microsoft the world’s largest personal computer software company at the time.

It’s safe to say that both Gates and Allen have, in some respects, created and paved the way for the technological advancements that follow their revolutionary idea of Microsoft.

Just take Davison client Eddie Porter, for example. Porter utilized our very own mobile app service to turn his idea into a reality – the Coach’s Whiteboard app!

Thanks to innovative thinking and a passion for basketball, Porter was able to combine these two factors and work alongside our team at Davison to create a an app to help coaches everywhere draw up new plays or call up old plays to lead team members, now available on the Apple App Store.

It’s innovative thinking and a creative spirit like that of Gates, Allen and Porter that validates the notion that if you have an idea and put in the effort, you too can make things better each day.

Copyright Davison, 2016

Images:

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/thisdayintech/2011/04/gates_and_allen_450px.jpg

The inventor of the Coach’s Whiteboard app has not received a net profit through the development of his app. Davison charges fees for services.

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In Monday’s blog, we introduced the idea of failing your way forward. We showed you how failure isn’t the end. In fact, failure is just the beginning.

After sharing our founder and CEO George Davison’s story of failing forward, we were intrigued and did some investigating of our own to uncover other prominent inventors and idea people’s stories of failure that turned into success.

Without further ado, we’d like to share with you four famous idea people who failed their way forward!

Sir James Dyson

“Enjoy failure and learn from it. You can never learn from success.”

Vacuuming your home wouldn’t be the same if Sir James Dyson gave up on himself and his idea after countless failed attempts. By countless, we mean 5,126 failed prototypes, in addition to completely wiping out his savings over the course of 15 years. Little did Sir Dyson know that lucky number 5,127 would be the patent that turned his idea into reality! Now, Dyson is the best-selling bagless vacuum brand in America. It’s a story such as this that shows how failing forward, no matter how many times, can sometimes lead to major success!

Bill Gates

“It’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

It might be hard to believe, but the co-founder of Microsoft endured his own setbacks. In fact, in high school, Gates along with fellow Microsoft co-found Paul Allen created Traf-O-Data. Though they were paid for their efforts, the business ultimately failed. After high school, Gates went on to attend Harvard but eventually dropped out! Though some would consider dropping out of Harvard as a failure, Gates saw it as an opportunity to pursue programming. In the end, Gates used both of these events in his life to propel himself forward and to create what we now know as Microsoft.

Thomas Edison

“I failed my way to success.”

What would you do if you were told that you’re “too stupid to learn anything?” For some, that would cripple any attempts at chasing after their dreams, but for Edison, when his teachers told him that he was “too stupid to learn anything” he used their words as motivation to fail forward. Even after being fired from not one, but two jobs, Edison still pushed forward to chase after his dreams. If he had succumbed to these roadblocks in his life, we wouldn’t have the inventions that changed the course of our lives as we know them, including the practical electrical lamp, the phonograph and, of course, the movie camera. Naysayers couldn’t deter Edison; rather they propelled him to fail forward and ultimately have more than 1,000 patents credited to his name!

John Logie Baird

Finally, in case you missed it, yesterday marked the 90-year celebration of John Logie Baird’s television invention! His mechanical television, also known as “the televisor,” was much like a radio. The difference was that his invention included a rotating mechanism that generated video to accompany the sound. Though his invention preceded the modern television, when he publicly demonstrated his invention in 1926 in Soho in front of members from the Royal Institution and a Journalist from the times, his idea wasn’t warmly accepted. In fact, the journalist didn’t see a future for this invention. But, that wasn’t the worst of it. Baird approached the Daily Express newspaper with his invention and they actually kicked him out. Talk about a failed attempt. But Baird didn’t let that failure deter him; he instead used it to fail forward and in 1927 he transmitted content a whopping 438 miles through a telephone line between London and Glasnow.

As you can see, even the most famous idea people have endured their fair share of failure along the way. However, it’s how they handled these obstacles that ultimately led them to their profound success.

Rather than letting failure define them, these idea people failed forward. Look how amazing their ideas turned out!

If you’re ready to chase after your inventing dreams with the Davison Inventing Method, submit your invention idea today!

Copyright Davison, 2016

Sources:

http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/02/16/50-famously-successful-people-who-failed-at-first/

http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-people-who-failed-at-first-2015-7

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/google-doodle/12121474/Who-invented-the-television-John-Logie-Baird-created-the-TV-in-1926.html

Images:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/James_Dyson_in_February_2013.jpg

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4011/4368494308_8f2bd992e4_o_d.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Thomas_edison_gl%C3%BChbirne.jpg

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7332/16178156208_fd3fa7a5a3_o_d.jpg

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