Success follows failure

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      Thomas.A.Edison said, "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up".

      In 1879, Procter and Gamble's best seller was candles but the company was in trouble. Thomas Edison had invented the light bulb and it looked as if candles would become obsolete. Their fears became reality when the market for candles plummeted since they now sold only on special occasions.

      The outlook appeared to be bleak for Procter and Gamble. However, at this time, it seemed that destiny played a dramatic part in pulling the struggling company from the clutches of bankruptcy.  A forgetful employee at a small factory in Cincinnati forgot to turn off his machine when he went to lunch. The result? A frothing mass of lather filled with air bubbles. He almost threw the stuff away but instead decided to make it into soap. The soap floated. Thus, Ivory soap was born and subsequently became the mainstay of the Procter and Gamble Company.

       A scientist at 3M was working at improving the glue that they put on their tape so that it would stick better. He came up with a new formula for glue but the new glue didn't stick very well at all. It would stick at first but later it could very easily be pulled off. He thought his new glue formula was a failure but instead of throwing the formula in the trash, he decided to share it with others in the company and see if there might be some use for it. A man named Art Fry started trying the new glue in different ways and finally he came up with the 'Post-If notes. The rest is history! What started out to be a big failure for 3M turned out to be one of their greatest successes!!

       Never give up when things go wrong or when seemingly insurmountable problems arise. Failures simply are practice shots for success. Creativity put to work can turn a problem into a gold mine.