“Wallace’s invention was tremendously important. And it’s interesting to me that it was round about that time, and in the years succeeding, that a lot of great men invented things and it almost seemed to be kind of a pattern. People don’t know what he achieved, and yet, what he achieved impacts everybody’s life; in fact, in probably a more important way then just being able to have an iPhone, an iPad and a personal computer, because it impacts the health of people. And without health, you have no life. Without life you have nothing else.”
He leaves lessons for other inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs, of which there are many. Many fewer fall into two of the three categories. In 1977, recording artist Meat Loaf accurately describes the achievement of these rare individuals thusly, “two out of three ain’t bad”. And for the rarest of individuals described as being all three, there are few to teach with little to learn, at least since Thomas Edison passed away in 1931.