Yes, you can learn from your successes. However, I have found that failure is a much better teacher.

You say: "if he (Edison) had stopped at his first failure what would have happened then?" This is so true. There are far too many people who let one little failure whip them. They fall, and then they refuse to get up and try again. This is cowardice, and a sure-fire way to get nowhere in life.

It is better to try and fail than to fail to try.