Are you familiar with ‘accidental discoveries?’
One of the most famous is Penicillin, which according to the inventor Alexander Fleming was discovered by a serendipitous accident.
Throughout history there have been many other serendipitous accidents that have created many of the products you take for granted today.
Corn Flakes for a clean healthy diet.
The Slinky was supposed to hold equipment on naval ships.
Coca-Cola was supposed to be a medical remedy.
Post-it Notes were supposed to be a super adhesive.
Potato chips were the result of an angry chef.
Play-Doh was supposed to be wallpaper cleaner.
These are just a few, but you can find many more that are now multi-million if not billion dollar products.
The thing about serendipitous accidents is that you have to be continuously creating and experimenting for the accident to happen.
Now there’s no guarantee that you’ll have the next million dollar idea but the next time you find yourself using a product in a way that is not what it was designed for, ask yourself, is this a serendipitous accident?