An invention that blooms despite adversity is a special invention indeed. In fact, it seems that the most impressive inventions passed the ultimate tests of struggle. When you look at all the resistance inventors faced, it’s amazing we made it this far.

Every invention has its competition. The zipper faced hook and loop fasteners. The horse trade was threatened by the automobile. It’s inevitable that an invention will encounter opposition with a better, worse or equal solution to the same problem and in all cases a battle is sure to ensue. Sometimes it’s just a legal battle, sometimes it’s a battle of marketing and at other times the two just have to improve themselves until the marketplace decides which they like better.

Take Edison, for example. Some would say his less-than-perfect hearing (actually, he was near deaf) was a handicap, but I disagree — it was probably a blessing. As a controversial inventor with competitors constantly flanking him, he needed a natural filter to block out the “purposeful chaos” created by his enemies. Between 1885 and 1900 Edison went through a series of legal battles to defend technology and patents. During this time, he or, his company, paid out more than $2 million. It seemed like everyone wanted a piece of the Edison pie at the time, and some may have had rightful claim to a few of the creations. Long-term rivals Edison and Westinghouse battled it out many times, first over Edison’s carbon-filament patent and later in a greater battle of AC (alternating current) vs. DC (direct current). Westinghouse claimed that Edison’s DC system was too weak to transmit power to rural areas. Edison didn’t want his competitor to win out and accused Westinghouse’s system as too dangerous for consumption and even bought an ad in a national newspaper depicting the potentially fatal outcome of using Westinghouse’s AC.

But the competition fueled both Edison and Westinghouse. Westinghouse focused on finding better ways to build up systems to transmit and relay energy to outlying areas. Westinghouse’s technology went on to make AC a standard in America. Although the public chose Westinghouse in this battle, Edison fought by showcasing the potential public hazards of high-voltage systems, which gave the public a strong understanding of this new, emerging technology.

I am a big fan of flowers that bloom in adversity. It makes strong people and organizations who know how to get things done. They find innovative solutions and get to bask in the glory of beating the odds.