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 Failure to Patent a Billion Dollar Formula
If you had invented an incredibly popular industrial chemical used by millions of people, you’d probably want it patented. So why haven’t the legal experts at WD-40 registered their invention with the federal government?
It turns out that if you patent something, you give away the secret of how it’s made. From a New York Times obituary of the executive that made the stuff famous:
The company never patented WD-40, in order to avoid having to disclose the ingredients publicly. Its name became synonymous with the product, like Kleenex.
[Former CEO] Mr. Barry acknowledged in interviews with Forbes magazine in 1980 and 1988 that other companies, including giants like 3M and DuPont, made products that closely resembled WD-40.
“What they don’t have,” he said, “is the name.”
Failure is the secret to success. By staying away from the US Patent and Trademark Office, WD-40 was able keep their focus on promoting and marketing their own product, rather than fighting off people trying to copy a public list of ingredients.
Photo © tshina.ru
By the way, the name WD-40? It’s another tale of failure and success. The official history page on the company website explains:
It took them 40 attempts to get the water displacing formula worked out. But they must have been really good, because the original secret formula for WD-40®—which stands for Water Displacement perfected on the 40th try—is still in use today.
Failure is the secret to success. And in the case of WD-40, it wasn’t just failure to file a patent and failure to give up after thirty-nine tries—-it was failure of the employees of their customers follow procedure.
Convair, an aerospace contractor, first used WD-40 to protect the outer skin of the Atlas Missile from rust and corrosion. The product actually worked so well that several employees snuck some WD-40 cans out of the plant to use at home.
A little minor employee theft made all the difference for the WD-40 company!
