From Failure to Success – What Mistake Has Led to Business Growth?

Has your business made a monumental mistake that just happened to turn into an unexpected success?

In no case is this situation more evident than when 3M invented the Post-it. At first, they didn’t know what to do with the slightly adhesive substance they had created, until the little yellow squares of paper seemed to be the perfect fit. Post-its then ended up becoming one of the best products 3M ever created.

A new book, Brilliant Mistakes: Finding Success on the Far Side of Failure by Paul J.H. Shoemaker, spotlights this topic and is hosting a nice little contest to parallel the theories in the book.

Here are the details:

• Describe your business mistake in 300 words or less
• What led to the mistake?
• How did it happen?
• What did you learn?
• Did it change your company?

You are eligible to win two round-trip tickets on Southwest, a Wharton Executive Education course (the publisher), a copy of the book, business-conference tickets to the Wharton Mack Center for Technological Innovation and other extras.

The contest closes on February 1 so get your entries ready soon and submit them here.

Leave us a comment below with a short summary of your business mistakes that have led to unexpected successes!

tags: Blog | business failure | business success