Do you know the Post-It notes that you use, was invented by-mistake almost 5 decades back? Can you imagine, the invention was a solution without a problem?
Yes, in 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a chemist at 3M Company was trying to invent a super-strong adhesive. Instead, he ended up inventing a unique, low-tack adhesive that would stick to things but also could be repositioned multiple times.
As the invention was a solution without a problem, Mr Silver had to promote his invention within his company- 3M itself through both informal as well as formal ways like a seminar. Until the time he finally got to sell that to one of his colleague – Art Fry in 1974. He used to sing in his church choir. He was frustrated because of the bookmarks he used to mark his place in his hymnal which kept falling out. Which made him buy this right after the seminar.
No application for the lightly sticky stuff was apparent until Fry’s idea. The 3M company was initially skeptical about the product’s profitability, but in 1980, the product was introduced across the world. Today, Post-it notes are sold in each and every part of the world.
As per Einstein “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
As you can see, not every mistake is wrong or bad. Sometimes mistakes also open up completely new and unseen pathways for you. So, do not fear the change, do not follow the same routine. Adapt new things and change the ways for opening up to something amazing and unseen.
Although everyone knows Post-It notes as an amazing success story, what they forgot is that it took more than a decade for the product to finally get the internal support to reach its target market.
Sometimes, you just need a passionate and dedicated team who really see the value in something to keep pushing, delivering and improving a product until they find a way that shows the right value for it to become a success.
Written & Compiled by Faber Priyal & Faber Mayuri.
