Seek to Misconstrue + a
Failure: The Blog 
August 2018
- When This Executive Was Fired, He Took Charge
- Obeying The Speed Limit Has Never Been More Fun
- London Black Cabs Helped Uber Grow
- Bette Graham Created A Product To Fix Her Mistakes
- Flamin' Hot Cheetos Had An Interesting Start
July 2018
- Fear This Instead Of Failure
- Re-Releasing Songs Created Success
- A CEO's Purposeful Mistake
- The Tardy Student And The Unsolvable Problem
- Fixing Potholes Through Graffiti
June 2018
- A Surprising Mistake In The Oxford English Dictionary
- US Army Embraces Mistakes
- Blocking A Hymn
- Eddie Shore Was Truly A Tough Guy
- [Video] Elon Musk Didn't "Pivot" He Failed
May 2018
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness Part 2
- Necessity Turned Accessory: Allen Iverson's Sleeve
- This Doctor Has Continued To Fail
- 8 Examples of Mental Toughness
- MIT Accidentally Creates New Smelting Process
April 2018
- Johnny Cash Quit Singing Lessons
- Cruise Control Came Out of Frustration
- Time Spent Gaming Pays Off In The Navy
- Rock Around The Clock Was a Commercial Failure
- Sigmund Freud Should Have Been Discouraged
March 2018
The Ridiculous Contract
When world-famous rock bands arrange to go on tour, they send ahead extremely long and complicated legal agreements. One of these contracts contained an absolutely ridiculous clause: “there must be a bowl of M&M’s candy in the green room, with all brown M&M’s removed.”
It’s easy to chalk this one up to the excesses of rock and roll. Surely these crazy, drug-addled musicians are making up nonsense ideas just for fun. But it turns out that this is a real story for a real reason. A
snopes.com article explains:
The legendary “no brown M&Ms” contract clause was indeed real, but the purported motivation for it was not. The M&Ms provision was included in Van Halen’s contracts not as an act of caprice, but because it served a practical purpose: to provide an easy way of determining whether the technical specifications of the contract had been thoroughly read (and complied with).
Photo © Flickr User travelling bunny
The bowl was sort of like a canary in a coal mine—it could be a signal of serious danger. Bands like Van Halen had all kinds of complex requirements about electricity, lighting, the size and strength of elements of the stage and so on. If the venue hadn’t read the contract in detail, lives could be at risk.
The lesson from the story is that Failure is the secret to success. It might sound crazy to include a clause about candy-covered chocolates in the legalese, but it could be the most straightforward way to help ensure a safe and enjoyable show. What seems like silliness could actually be profoundly important.
