Bobby MoestaInnovator, Entrepreneur, Professor and Advisor

WHAT IS THE WORK? #bobmoesta #innovators #productdevelopment #entrepreneurs #thomasedisonquotes

30 Sept 2024 · 1 min

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In this solo talk recorded at Greenfield Village, Bobby Moesta argues that real work does not occur in meetings but in the mind—through thinking, breaking problems into small pieces, and continuous building. He cites Thomas Edison’s claim that none of his inventions were accidental and uses the historical example of Henry Ford’s development of the Flathead V8 in the 1930s, where plans from the Rouge plant were rapidly prototyped, assembled, and tested on site. Moesta emphasizes that purposeful, iterative prototyping—rather than accidental discovery—is the core of productive work and encourages listeners to enjoy the building process.

Chapters

So one of the things Thomas Edison talked about was the fact that none of his inventions were on accident. And I come back to this place here where I am today in Greenfield Village, talking about basically what is the work. The first thing I want to tell you is the work does not happen in meetings. The work happens in your head. It happens in thinking, and it happens by breaking things down to the small pieces. And I come to a place like this where you see kind of where— here, this is where the Flathead V8 was actually developed by Henry Ford in the 1930s. And I think about And they would have plans that were drawn up at the Rouge plant and brought over here, and they would prototype, and they would basically build parts continuously. And they would actually have a plan that was off the presses in Rouge would get here one day, 2 days later they'd have it in the engine and the engine would be running. And they'd be testing the engine and running and learning. And so none of that is by accident. Most of the time, the things that most people are worried about is not the work, which is the building part. So have fun building. Thank you.