Huge ideas don't always change the world. Little ideas are not always insignificant. Therefore, your idea does not have to be huge to change the world. Little ideas do that too!
Let’s take some very good examples from history.
Most people already know most of the history examples, but it is good to be reminded of them every so often to keep our perspective.
Hard to think of little slips of paper with glue on them as huge. However these little slips of paper changed the world (and likely the course of some businesses) once they came on the market. Post-it notes (and all the derivatives) trace their origins to a chemistry accident. Spencer Silver was searching for a super sticky adhesive, and well, we all know that though post-it notes hold, they are not permanent. Mr. Silver did not go any further with his “failure”, but he didn’t throw out the result either. Then a friend (Art Fry) and fellow 3M employee needed a non-permanent bookmark for his hymnal. He got together with Silver, and now they are both credited equally with the invention of Post-it notes. They didn’t do well in market tests the first time around, but two years later when they were released to the public they were a huge hit. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Not many people think of chewing gum as a big idea. However you would be hard pressed to say the inventor of chewing gum didn’t change the world. Chewing gum was developed from a failed attempt to make rubber bicycle tires, toys, masks, AND boots from the chicle from the Mexican sapodilla tree. Every experiment failed. Had Thomas Adams not tossed a spare piece into his mouth and start chewing on it in frustration he would not have known he enjoyed the taste. In short order he decided he could improve it by adding flavor. Not long after that, Adams opened the first chewing gum factory. Then in 1871 his gum began selling in drugstores for a penny a piece.
This was not the end of Thomas Adams ingenious ideas. Adams sold the gum under the name Adams Sons and Company with the slogan “Adams’ New York Gum No. 1 – Snapping and Stretching”. In 1888 his Tutti Frutti gum became the first gum sold in vending machines. They were located in the New York Subway. The firm was the most prosperous producer of gum by the end of the century. Further by 1899 Adams Sons and Company was a gum producing monopoly through a merger with the 6 largest competitors in the U.S. and Canada, and achieved great success as the maker of “Chicklets”.
Where would we be if Thomas Adams had tossed the remainder of his lot of chicle into the East River as he had originally planned before popping a surplus piece into his mouth?
Thomas Alva Edison, the greatest inventor of all time, had more than a few failures. For example, in the process of inventing his 1093 successful patented inventions for things like the lightbulb, the motion picture camera, and the phonograph, he also tried to make a successful run at building things out of cement. He started the Edison Portland Cement Co. to make things like pianos, cupboards (for his phonograph), and houses. Unfortunately the price of cement was too high, and these ideas never caught on. All was not lost though – his company was chosen to build Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
In his work to improve the electric light bulb (contrary to popular belief he did not invent it, instead he improved on a 50 or so year old idea that had been previously a failure for general home use), he had to invent at least 7 other patented items, refine them to “perfection” and pull them all together into his work. These were:
- The parallel circuit
- The durable bulb
- Improved dynamo
- Underground conductor network
- Constant voltage devices
- Safety fuses / insulation materials
- Sockets with on/off switches
He didn’t let these stumbling blocks or any of the failures as he invented each stage along the way knock him off course. Instead he kept steady, focused, and inspired.
As a race we tend to be impressed by those we have never met. We put them on pedestals, think their life must be grand, and wish we were more like them. Movie stars, authors, artists, business people, athletes, musicians, etc. all have the same struggles, the same challenges, the same fears, the same vices we do. If we don’t make ourselves our own heroes then we are putting our energy, our minds, and our respect in the wrong place. Who is going to respect us, if we don’t first respect ourselves? We have to be the first one in line, tooting our own horn.
Besides, most of the people we are putting up there in a deity spot don’t deserve to be there. Pro-athletes do drugs, drink, commit crimes, and generally tend to think they are above the laws, as do the Hollywood bunch. Why? The answer is pure and simple, because we allow them to. When they do something wrong we give them a slap on the wrist, tell them not to do it again, and the value of their name, merchandise and image goes up. Authors, artists, musicians, etc. live lives that seem to be riddled with so much pain that they tend to (once again) turn to drugs, alcohol, crime, and the same follows through. The more tortured they want you to think they are the more self-detrimental activities they get into. Why would we want to immolate that?
In order to be anything that is your source of happiness, it does not take drugs, alcohol, crime, or a tortured soul. It takes standing up for something you have a passion in. Stand up for your self. Invent yourself. Make you what you want to revere. That is the true success.
Pick your happiness, visualize it, and do everything you can to bring it to fruition. Make it your reality, or someone will make your reality for you.
Edison is quoted as saying “I haven’t failed, I have found 10,000 ways that did not work.”
What can we glean from these examples? Never throw out a non-success. You never know where it might lead you next!
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