Post Its

I was talking to someone about Post It Notes this morning. As you may know, they are one of the world’s great accidental inventions. A chemist was trying to develop a super-strong glue and got something super weak instead. A bit later another scientist thought to use that failed glue to hold markers in his hymnal at church. Boom – Post It Notes!
I bring this up because the same principle applies to both food (hey, it’s Friday!) and other businesses. Often we’re very focused on one result and when we don’t get it we throw what we do get away.  Instead, keeping an open mind results in things like penicillin, brandy, Popsicles, potato chips, and Champagne (sounds like the after followed by the befores…).

I’m a big fan of open minds.  As a parent, we all tend to dread it when our kids ask us “why” and at some point it gets to either “I don’t know” or “because I said so.”  Neither is a great response.  But the question is a great one.  “Why?”  It’s an open mind.

I used to get frustrated sometimes when subordinates would ask the same thing, mostly because it forced me to question what I was doing yet again.  However, it was always a valuable exercise.  They learned something and I felt good about what we were doing.

It happens in the kitchen as well.  “Blackened snapper” sounds like something that happens with a lack of attention to a pan or a pseudonym for “burnt.”  But it’s great and a great technique for lots of food.  Think Paul Prudhomme was trying to cook that way or was it an accident?  Either way, it was the result of an open mind.

Good businesses or delicious dishes by mistake?  I wouldn’t call them that – just the results of a different outcome and an open mind.  As Yogi said, when you see a fork in the road, take it!