I've picked my favorite mistakes from history, science, and folklore. Some are familiar. We already know, for instance, that Christopher Columbus meant to sail to Asia, not America.
We may never have pondered other mistakes, however. Where would Jack be if his mother hadn't tossed his magic beans out the window? Not up the beanstalk getting golden eggs from the giant's goose, that's for sure. And where would Cinderella be had she not dropped her glass slipper? Cleaning the fireplace, that's where.
And now for the rest...
Coca-Cola, chocolate chip cookies, and yellow sticky notes. Both Coca-Cola and chocolate chip cookies were mistakes — or at least unexpected delights. And yellow sticky notes were the result of a failure. Here's what happened.
Innkeeper Ruth Wakefield was baking Butter Drop Do cookies one day in the 1930s using a recipe that dated back to colonial times. She cut up a chocolate bar and put the chunks in the batter, expecting them to melt. Wakefield thought she'd be pulling chocolate-flavored cookies out of the oven. Instead, what she got were butter cookies studded with gooey chocolate chips. Her mistake became one of the most favorite cookies of all time.
Coca-Cola was the result of another delicious accident. In 1886 a pharmacist named John Pemberton cooked up medicinal syrup in a large brass kettle slung over an open fire, stirring it with an oar. When he was done, he figured he had created a fine tonic for people who were tired, nervous or plagued with sore teeth. He and his assistant mixed it with ice water, sipped it, and proclaimed it tasty. They wanted some more, and the assistant accidentally used carbonated water to mix the second batch. Voila! Instead of medicine, these men had created a fizzy beverage — one that is now consumed around
the world. Today people guzzle 1 billion drinks a day from the Coca-Cola Company (they make more than Coke). Even more encouraging for us everyday screw-ups: This new beverage wasn't an instant success. In the first year, Pemberton spent $73.96 promoting his new product but managed to sell only $50 worth.
Yellow sticky notes, officially known as Post-it Notes, got their start in 1968 when a 3M
researcher tried to improve adhesive tape. What he got was a semi-sticky adhesive — not exactly what you want out of tape. Even so, he knew he had something cool — he just didn't know what to do with it. Four years later, another 3M scientist was getting frustrated. This scientist was a member of his church choir, and he kept dropping the
bookmarks stuck in his hymnal. What he needed was something that would stick without being too sticky — something just like that weak glue his colleague had accidentally created. In 1980 the Post-it Note became an official product and a huge hit.
(Another 3M scientist came up with a cool substance called Scotchgard, which helps prevent dirt from staining fabric. But that wasn't what she set out to create: Scotchgard grew out of an attempt to make a synthetic rubber to be used in airplane fuel lines. One day some of the new substance spilled on her assistant's canvas shoe, and they couldn't get it off. As the tennis shoe grew older, it got dingy — everywhere except where the substance had spilled. It took three more years of tinkering, but they had their Scotchgard.)
Other "mistakes" led to rubber tires, silly putty, synthetic rubber, the implantable cardiac pacemaker, penicillin and many other useful items we use or see each day.
This brings to mind a powerful quote by scientist Louis Pasteur, "Where observation is concerned, chance favors only the prepared mind," and another, by writer James Joyce, "Mistakes are the portals for discovery."
What they mean is that you should look carefully — and study your errors. You may find things you were never looking for, things that could change the world, or at the very least, taste really good.
- from "Mistakes that Worked"
by Charlotte Foltz Jones.
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