One of the questions that I ask when I interview people for this blog is, tell me about your biggest failure and how did it translate into a great success? Like most people in life, I like it when things work out in the end. In life, things do not always work out, but that should not stop us from being hopeful. Though there are many times when what seemed like a sure failure, mistake or whatever you’d like to call it, turned out to be a major coup. Here are seven accidental discoveries:

1. Champagne: A popular story about how champagne was first created suggests that a monk named Dom Perignon was trying to make white wine and instead created a wine with lots of bubbles of carbon dioxide. Wikipedia disputes this popular belief and clarifies that it was the first sparkling champagne that was accidentally discovered by Dom Perignon.  
2. Saccharin: This artificial sweetener was discovered in 1879 by Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg. They were working with coal tar derivatives, and they discovered the sweetness of saccharin because they didn’t wash their hands properly.
3. Viagra: Pharmaceutical juggernaut Pfizer originally developed sildenafil citrate as a heart medication to help men who were suffering from chest pains. The results were not promising so they stopped the studies. But when they looked at the published data, they realized it would be an appropriate treatment for erectile dysfunction. The medication was re-evaluated and the rest they say is history.
4. Band-aid: In 1921, Earle Dickson discovered band-aid at Johnson and Johnson. His wife was always cutting herself in the kitchen while cooking, and he was simply trying to find a solution to keeping the cut germ free while allowing her to continue to do what she was doing.
5. Penicillin: This antibiotic was accidentally discovered in 1928 when Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist left bacteria cultures uncovered for several days.
6. Frisbee: Walter Fredrick Morrison and his wife used to toss a cake pan on the beach in California, and he wanted to find a way to make the pan “fly better”  and the modern day frisbee was born.
7. The sandwich: The creator of today’s sandwich is unfairly credited to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. There are conflicting stories on the internet about the origin of the sandwich, but the most interesting one is that John was very fond of playing cards and would do so for an entire day. He did not want food to interfere with his game so he asked his cook to prepare him a meal that would be easy to eat. She presented him with today’s version of a sandwich.

Think back to when you were a child, were there games you played that you invented? Are there projects that you abandoned because you didn’t get the results that you sought? Can they be used in different ways? What would you like to add to the conversation? Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed.

Further Reading

The Accidental Innovator, Sarah Jane Gilbert, July 5, 2006, Harvard Business School

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

No related posts.

Here are the tweets that I think Thomas Edison would blog about on Twitter:

@Edison I improved on a 50-year old idea to produce a light bulb that worked. What can u improve upon today?

@Edison I had very little formal education, so lack of formal education is no excuse for failure. Persistence pay

@Edison Held 1,093 patents for different inventions, many of which influenced your life

@Edison Don’t be mesmerized with the idea of success. I’ve had some whopping failures, but I’d like 2 think I failed forward 2 success

@Edison As a child I consumed books: The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, History of The World, and  The Anatomy of Melancholy

@Edison I’ve been partially deaf since childhood, but I didn’t let that stop me from contributing to the world

@Edison Home schooled by my mom after being kicked out of school. She used 2 b a teacher, & her belief in me, made me believe in myself

@Edison Mentors r key. As a teenager, an inventor allowed me 2 work w/ him in his basement. Started my work in electrical telegraphy there

@Edison Inventors & innovators often build on the work of others. Look at what’s been done b4 and try to perfect it

@Edison I was married twice and had six children

Below is a 22-minute Google video on Edison

Source:

The Inventions of Thomas Edison

The Biography of Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison Biography

Thomas Edison   Biography / Autobiography / Memoir Resources

Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikipedia (Edison as a youth)

Related posts:

1. Benjamin Franklin in 10 Tweets

Looking Upwards

“For everyone of us that succeeds, it’s because there’s somebody there to show you the way out” Oprah Winfrey

There are many ways that people show others the way, both directly and indirectly. And, many people have allowed others to stand on their shoulders, sometimes even without knowing, simply by teaching others what they know or by documenting their observations, thoughts, insights and discoveries for others to read.

A quick way for us to stand on the shoulders of giants is to examine what’s been done before by reading about and listening to the experiences and lives of those we value and respect. You never know what bright idea you could come across, or what problem could be solved now because the time is right and the technology now exists.

A review of several books on creativity, inventions, discoveries and great thinkers and scientists who have changed the world, books such as Discover Your Genius : How to Think Like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds, Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas, The art of thought, The Art of Thinking, The 100 Greatest Inventions Of All Time, 100 Discoveries: The Greatest Breakthroughs in History, suggest that great thinkers have certain traits in common.

Leonardo da Vinci, Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Gutenberg, Copernicus, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Curie and Alexander Fleming, a few of the great thinkers who made discoveries, and/or created products that influenced/changed the world, had the unique knack to do many of the following:

• Reflect
• Open to experiment
• Keep record of research
• Steely determination: impossible was not an answer
• Open minded
• Childlike sense of play
• Curious
• Voracious reader
• Read/study broadly
• Observe, detect and collect facts
• Think independently
• Take breaks to reenergize
• Total absorption in subject
• Have imagination
• Have vision
• Didn’t reinvent the wheel – built on present and past knowledge
• Look at the limitations of old inventions and devise a solution
• Modify present technologies for other uses
• Make connections between two different things
• Combine theoretical knowledge with practical skills
• Pay attention to detail
• Give vital ideas the opportunity to take root and grow

How many of these traits do you have? And how many could you acquire with concerted effort? If you re-read yesterday’s blog post you will notice that some of the above traits are similar to some of the activities mentioned by survey respondents.

All of us are capable of generating our own great ideas. Read widely, reflect on life, travel to places that you’ve never been before, eat foods from different cultures, interact with nature, think about problems that need solving and work on ways to solve those problems. Immerse yourself in many activities and create new experiences for yourself. We can learn from the experiences of others, and we can use the words of others as Invisible Mentors to help us make progress in life. We can stand on the shoulders of giants!

What are your thoughts? How can you build on this concept?

Book links are affiliate links!

Related Post:

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants (Part I)

To Read or Not to Read, Now That’s the Question

The Secrets of Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving

How to Read to Problem Solve

Do You Have This Critical Workplace Skill?

Photo Credits: Avil Beckford

Related posts:

1. Great Ideas – Standing on the Shoulders of Giants