Daily Inspiration 1-21-10

"Even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary
to a worthwhile achievement."

-- Henry Ford


We may think mistakes are a problem. We might even use words like failure, or consequences, or bad. Those are some ways of looking at it, but consider these mistakes:

Silly Putty

Due to a rubber shortage in World War II, the U.S. Government asked scientists to try to find an alternative to use in the war effort. James Wright, a General Electric engineer mixed boric acid with silicone oil. He was so happy with the outcome, he threw some on the floor and found that it bounced. Yet GE didn't really know how to utilize the product, and sold it to toy store owner Ruth Fallgatter and her friend Peter Hodgson. Ruth gave up marketing it after a year and Peter Hodgson took over and renamed it Silly Putty in 1950. The rest is history. See more about this story here: History of Silly Putty.


Velcro

From Wikipedia: "The hook-and-loop fastener was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer, George de Mestral who lived in Commungny, Switzerland. The idea came to him one day after returning from a hunting trip with his dog in the Alps. He took a close look at the burrs (seeds) of the burdock that kept sticking to his clothes and his dog's fur. He examined them under a microscope, and noted their hundreds of "hooks" that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing, animal fur, or hair. He saw the possibility of binding two materials reversibly in a simple fashion, if he could figure out how to duplicate the hooks and loops." And the rest is history. You didn't know Velcro was that old, did you? Here is more of the story: Velcro History.

Post-It (R) notes

From Wikipedia: "In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M in the United States, with the help of Jesse Kops, a fellow scientist, accidentally developed a "low-tack", reusable pressure sensitive adhesive. For five years, Silver promoted his invention within 3M, both informally and through seminars, but without much success. In 1974, a colleague of his, Art Fry, who had attended one of Silver's seminars, came up with the idea of using the adhesive to anchor his bookmark in his hymnbook. Fry then developed the idea by taking advantage of 3M's officially sanctioned "permitted bootlegging" policy. 3M launched the product in 1977, but it failed as consumers had not tried the product. A year later 3M issued free samples to residents of Boise, Idaho. 90 percent of people who tried them said that they would buy the product. By 1980, the product was being sold nationwide in the US; a year later Post-its were launched in Canada and Europe." See the rest here: Post-It History.

There are countless products that have become mainstays and started as accidents. Foam rubber is another. Now, don't you wish you made mistakes like this? You most likely can! Never fear making mistakes for "even a mistake may turn out to be the one thing necessary to a worthwhile achievement."


The Word 'Mistake' Is A Judgement Of An Event Or Decision. I Am Now Less Critical And More Interested!

Spread Some Joy Today--Try looking back at some of your so-called mistakes. Now that there is time between you and the event, do they look less negative? They should. They are partly what led you to here. Here is good! Let it be okay!