The Importance of Mistakes

The beauty of careful observation is that it always bears fruit. We get a better understanding of anything when we take meticulous notes. Through out all of our lives we are applauded, praised, and commended for doing things right or winning. We do not get any mention or are reprimanded when we make mistakes. Mistakes are important.

Mistakes are worth it. We learn from mistakes. We learn if we take note of it and try to prevent it in the future. There are many examples of mistakes that taught the correct course of action. Negative results in academics are not published. When characterizing something and numerous methods fail to produce results, they are not published. In fact one of my revered professors told me what his professor told him “I am just as proud of my hypotheses that did NOT come true as I am about the ones that did.”

First of all, the benefits of the antibiotic penicillin were found by mistake. Sir Alexander Fleming who is described as a careless technician had a culture plate of Staphylococci that had become contaminated with mold. This mold appeared to dissolve or lyse the bacteria and prevent growth.¹ More characterization of the properties and separation and purification elicited the penicillin as it is used now.²

Another example of benefits found by accident is Viagra. Pfizer scientists were working on an angina treatment that would relax the constricting blood vessels. It did not work as well in patient trials for angina, but volunteers in the study described the side effect of erections.³ The marketing team took over and made it one of the most prescribed drugs, 1.7 million prescriptions in 2014.⁴

One more example of a mistake that turned out to be a success is Post-it notes. Initially the company 3M was researching for a super strong adhesive for the aerospace industry. Spencer Silver created an incredibly weak pressure sensitive adhesive. This was not seen as useful at first. After five years of persistent marketing and rejection within 3M and seven years of development, the products became a hit and mainstay in offices.⁵

Finally, negative results cannot be published but are inevitable for success. Thomas Edison with the light bulb went through 1,000 attempts. He summed up the importance of mistakes when a reporter asked, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” Edison replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.”⁶