Workers in the Wedgwood factory always knew when the company’s founder was in the building. They could hear his wooden leg’s tap-tap as he climbed the stairs and crossed the plank floorboards. Josiah Wedgwood’s stumpy gait was the sound of purposefulness. Driven by an unquenchable curiosity, he was a man determined to squeeze as much into his life’s work as possible, refusing to be held back by the amputation of one leg because of childhood smallpox.
Born in 1730 as the 12th child of a Staffordshire potting family, young Josiah’s destiny should have been making simple earthenware but, having only one leg, he was unable to operate the pedal of the potter’s wheel. So, he turned his attention to design, innovation, and marketing.
“In the wonderful way of providence,” wrote William Gladstone, “that disease was probably
