Paul Sloane

And he then asked people all around the world to watch out for these.

And as they came up in different shores in different places, he was able to use that to help map ocean currents.

He saw the accident...

not as a problem, but as an opportunity.

Indeed.

And that's what innovations and if we're talking about major innovations, if we're talking about, you know, Viagra was an accident, but then Pfizer had the sense to recognize that although it failed in its initial objective, which was reducing men's blood pressure, but there was a side effect, which was highly beneficial.

They repurposed the

the product and made it into a world beating drug, which is very, very popular.

So when accidents happen, when things like this happen in business, you've got to be prepared to take a chance and put some resource into developing a product and testing it and doing things with it.

But in your everyday life,

you'll find many times there are little things that happen which give you an opportunity, an opening for something more interesting, an avenue to try something.

It's not just the big inventions.

It's not just the penicillins and the, you know, the Viagras that matter.

It's meeting someone really interesting and then not letting them go, keeping their details and sending them an email, meeting them for a coffee, having a discussion rather than saying, who was that interesting person?

What a pity I never stayed in touch with them.

A company like Procter & Gamble plans for innovation, and over half of their revenues come from new products every few years.

And they do this by looking around and asking people for ideas in focused areas.

And they keep trying things, many of which fail.

So they launch products which fail, and they launch two or three that fail, and then they'll have one which is a big success.

And they treat it as a numbers game.