Thomas Edison remains America’s greatest innovator. While other inventors spend their lives working on a single breakthrough — or simply stumble upon an invention — Edison was a master of innovative thinking. He held more than 1,000 patents during his life, more than any other person in the nation’s history.

There may be only one Edison, but we all can develop our innovation skills. By learning these bright lessons from him, we can boost our creativity and solve professional and personal problems…

Use what you learn. Many of Edison’s breakthroughs were the result of taking an idea from one field and applying it to something entirely different. Using carbon to boost telephone transmitter volume came from his earlier attempt to study resistance in electrical cables. That cable experiment was unsuccessful — carbon’s resistance changed too easily to meet his needs — but while working on phone transmitters, it occurred to Edison that carbon was just what was needed to replicate sound waves. His resulting innovation was a crucial part of every phone until the digital age.

Look at the big picture. Edison didn’t just invent the electric light. His company also built the electricity-generating infrastructure to run the lights, complete with power stations and transmission wires. It came as no surprise to Edison that power generation became a more profitable industry than bulb manufacturing — people buy bulbs only now and then, but they pay to run them every day. Building an integrated power system also gave Edison an advantage over competitors, who had to build lights that would work on his system.

Explore ideas. Some of Edison’s discoveries came from experiments that were meant simply to increase his knowledge. He made a crucial breakthrough on his electric light while experimenting with heating metals. Edison believed that the key to an electric light lay in finding the right filament — but during his experiments with metal, he was struck by the effect of impurities in the metal. It occurred to him that impurities in the air around the filament could be significant. He decided to put his filament in a vacuum. Sealed-air lightbulbs remain in use to this day.

Find a kernel of success in failure. Edison used to say that he never had a failed experiment. Even when experiments went wrong, they still boosted his knowledge.

Example: Edison poured a huge amount of time and money into an ore-milling company, only to see the venture fail when ore discoveries in the Midwest reduced prices. The ore operation has been widely regarded as Edison’s greatest folly. Before the company failed, though, Edison noted that the sand that was a by-product of ore milling could be sold to cement makers. Seeing an opportunity, Edison soon entered the cement industry, patenting substantial improvements in both rock-crushing and kiln technologies. He received royalties on every barrel of cement produced from kilns of his design. His company even supplied the cement for the original Yankee Stadium. None of this would have happened if Edison simply had written off ore milling as a failure.

Keep improving. Edison often spent years refining his ideas. Continued innovation enabled him to stay ahead of his competitors by lowering manufacturing costs and improving quality.

Example: Edison filed more patents related to electric lights in 1882 than in any other year — even though he had already perfected the practical incandescent lamp three years earlier.

One reason why Edison was able to refine his ideas was that he didn’t sell the rights to his inventions — his company manufactured and sold his products. Edison used feedback from customers, salespeople and engineers to perfect his designs.