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This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
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best advice from the most interesting people.
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In this exclusive series, entrepreneur and creative leader Andy Millman takes us through
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his views on creativity, curiosity and guts.
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To find out more about Andy, listen to the Q&A listed in the show notes.
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To find out more about Label Sessions, visit Labelsessions.com.
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Welcome back to CCNG, the pot of gold at the end of the podcast rainbow.
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And we'll start off with, oh my god, yes, yes, yet another personal in the trenches
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story.
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This is a long one, I'm warning you, so you may want to grab a drink, or perhaps even
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the six pack.
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Here we go.
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The year was 2000, the month was June, and the mobile media industry, today's leading
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driver of just about everything, well, mobile was not merely in its infancy back then, it
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was in its pre-embryonic stage.
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In fact, it wasn't even con-mobile then.
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The industry term was wireless.
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So as president of a mobile startup called Airborne Entertainment, I was trying to make
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heads or tails as per what wireless was and where it could go.
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So I attended as many industry conferences as I could, wherever they may be.
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And in June 2000, the conference was in Los Angeles, at the glittering Beverly Hilton
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Hotel, home of the Golden Globes Awards ceremony, and of way too many sordid tales of showbiz
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excess to recount here.
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As a company with limited funds, Airborne had to find a way to make noise and bring
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attention to ourselves at these events without the deep pockets of our VC-backed startup
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competition.
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They had money to burn and did so by throwing opulent parties, giving out lavish swag, and
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sponsoring the events and the sessions themselves.
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This not only brought name recognition, but guaranteed them the prestige of prime speaking
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spots in front of the assembled hoard.
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These industry events were no meritocracy.
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You got on stage and got to pump your company in message depending on how much money you
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stuffed into the pockets of the conference organizers.
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Big bucks got you opening, midday, or closing keynotes.
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Smaller bucks got you a spot on a breakout panel or something equally less inspiring.
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Even the act of giving stuff away cost money.
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To distribute swag or company literature, you had to buy a display booth or become what
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was called a promotional partner.
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Well, as the littlest of little fish, we had enough cash for a mere fraction of the aforementioned,
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but the ambition for all of it.
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We knew that there were going to be about 300 people at said conference and immediately
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got to thinking, okay, what can we make 300 copies of but do so cheaply and make an oversized
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impact at this conference?
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In a creative spark storm, yes, long time listeners will realize and I walk my talk,
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in this spark storm, we realized that while a handful of insiders, maybe half the conference
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people, while they believed in the wireless future, the other attendees, the general populace,
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and especially the big brands were still closed minded skeptical.
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Remember, this was seven years away from the launch of the iPhone.
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So when someone on our team quipped, huh, people have to be converted to wireless, the
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light bulb popped, we would come up with a wireless conversion kit.
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We knew that we had to keep expenses low.
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So we found the ultimate and most obvious tool to quote unquote go wireless, a wire
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cutter.
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We could buy them in bulk for 79 cents each.
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But the genius was in the way we packaged them.
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We had a writer named Mark Shane bloom on staff.
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He was a wonderfully geeky guy whose experience lay in comic books, science fiction and superhero
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creation.
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And after a few hilarious drafts from him, our simple wire cutters were attached to a
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colorful piece of laminated cardboard to become the convertix 3.3 wireless conversion utility.
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Height up sales copy on the package shouted convert entertainment to wireless in a snap.
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On top of that, Mark added extra tongue in cheek sales points like perfect for cutting
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your ties to old media models, helpful for convincing others to convert, especially when
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applied to flesh areas.
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In cost in effect in message, they were perfect in every way.
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I couldn't wait to use them.
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As an aside, what's amazing is that I flew to Los Angeles with 300 of these wire cutters
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in two small rolling suitcases, which are actually carried on the plane.
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Remember, this was pre 9 11.
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Anyway, come the day of the conference, I walk into the Beverly Hilton with a pair of
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heavy stuff rolling bags.
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I was staying elsewhere because we couldn't afford the exorbitant rates at the Beverly
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Hilton.
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I attended the major morning ballroom sessions and when everyone broke the lunch prior to
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the big midday keynote, I snuck into the now empty ballroom and put a convertix 3.3 wireless
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conversion utility on every single seat.
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When the programming reconvened, I was one of the first in the room and watched with
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glee as the attendees filed in, picked the wire cutters off their seats and examined
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them.
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They were a bit bewildered at first, but then broke into big smiles as they kept reading.
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Better still, most of them turned to their neighbors to discuss the gimmick and I would
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hope the company that was behind it.
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As I was plotting my next move, i.e. who do I approach and how do I conjure up some business
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for Airborne, as I was plotting, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
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It was a short woman with a wire cutter in her hand who asked innocently, are you the
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person responsible for this?
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Wow, mission accomplished and so quickly, I beamed with excitement and answered with
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a proud yes, yes, yes, yes indeed I am.
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And with that, I felt my past being unceremoniously ripped from my neck.
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You have to leave, she snarled.
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You're not allowed to do this.
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Our sponsors are going nuts.
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Get out of here now.
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Well, I thought of hightailing it back home, but the trip was already paid for.
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I was far away in LA and I didn't want to give up that easily.
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So I decided to hang around and make the most of the situation.
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I would sneak into the lesser attended and security weaker panel sessions where any person
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in the room is a welcome one, pass or no pass.
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And in between these sessions, when I was more likely to be spotted by that woman again,
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I would slither through the corridors and hide in one of the hotel bathrooms.
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She could kick me out of her conference, but not out of the Beverly Hilton itself.
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On her route to one such bathroom escape, I was stopped by a tall, well-dressed man.
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Hey, are you the guy responsible for the wire cutters?
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He asked me.
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I didn't know if he was hotel security or some other unfriendly foe.
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But I answered, yes, anyway.
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I love them, he exploded.
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Turns out he was a Disney executive named Trip Wood looking to bring his company into
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this new wireless world.
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I think they're great, he enthused.
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In fact, I'd like to set up a meeting with you and see how we can work together.
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I was at his office the next day and the glorious end result was a contract to create a mobile
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game, albeit a primitive one, for the film Monsters, Inc.
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That meeting with Trip spawned a five-year professional relationship between Airborne
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and Disney and a friendship that lasts until this day.
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But most important of all, six weeks later in New York, when I went door to door, meeting
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to meeting, pitching the new world of wireless to companies like HBO, A&E, Maxim Magazine,
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The Fool Network, and the NHL, they all said, holy shit, you're working with Disney?
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It gave us instant credibility and helped build Airborne as a mobile media pioneer.
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So yes, I guess as the song goes, some guys have all the luck.
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But how to get lucky is what's important, especially in a business context.
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And after this lengthy diatribe, that's what this episode of CCG is all about.
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Finally, it's a simple lesson, but one that's counterintuitive on multiple levels.
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Let's start, obviously, with an article from my corporate crush, The Wall Street Journal.
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It was written by Biff Matthews.
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I know that sounds like some sort of 80s sitcom character, but he's actually the chairman
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of Longview Asset Management.
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And in his article, he positions the act of investing along the ability slash luck spectrum.
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He cites the book, The Success Equation by Michael Malbusen, which examines the results
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of over 1,400 mutual funds between two successive three-year periods and ultimately concludes
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that, success in investing measured over a three-year period is an activity that is about
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85% luck and only 15% skill.
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He goes on to say that, in every aspect of life, luck is a far more important and uncontrollable
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force than people realize.
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Wise words and perhaps not easy for future masters of the universe to accept, but the
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hand of fate is, at the very least, as strong as your own too.
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But more on that next episode.
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Let's continue this one with a one-question pop quiz.
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Proactive or reactive?
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What's better?
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Let me explain with, you won't believe it, yes, another personal story.
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As mentioned in the last episode, I was a hockey goalie for 20 years.
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On the surface, goaltending seems like a reactive position, because players shoot at you and
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your job is to basically stop the puck.
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But in all actuality, it is extremely proactive, almost like computer programming.
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Elite goalies are taught to anticipate plays, like if player X is here, player Y is there,
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and the puck is there, you do this.
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But once I changed position to play forward, I realized how different it was.
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No matter how hard I tried, proactivity would take a backseat to reactivity.
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Pucks bounce oddly.
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Players on the other team don't do what you want them to do.
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Geez, players on your own team don't do what you want them to do.
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The result is an almost entirely in-the-moment flow, where your previous experience mixes
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with your reaction time to create the next play.
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So if hockey can be a metaphor for business, no wonder renowned Belfast-born economist
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W. Bryant Arthur said,
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We should focus on the ability to react to events, rather than relying on the ability
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to predict them.
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And within that sentence lurks the secret of luck, namely the act of improvisation.
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Ah, improvisation.
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Like love, it's another term not commonly used in the corporate world, a world all about
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quarterly projections, five-year plans, and where do you see yourself ten years from now?
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Not everyone shies away from improvisation, though.
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Bob Kohlhand teaches improv to students and executives and is the author of the book Getting
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to Yes and, for those of you not versed in the art of improvisation, Yes and is the root
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strategy to all improv, but I digress.
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Kohlhand insists that in business,
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Reaction is about reacting, being focused and present in the moment, at a very high
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level.
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We live in a time of constant change and uncertainty.
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The ability to react is necessary to finding solutions that fulfill the demands of the
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marketplace.
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Author Maria Brito agrees.
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In her book How Creativity Rules the World, she says,
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Improvisation isn't a substitute for planning, but rather, an instrument to be used in situations
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that catch us off-guard, or when our strategies haven't prepared us for an unforeseen circumstance.
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The paradox of improvisation is that the more prepared and competent you are, the more creative
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and unpredictable you can be.
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The greater your preparation, the easier it is to relinquish control.
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And that's the counterintuitive element I referenced earlier.
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Improvisation is far, far from just winging it.
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The strongest improviser in the world, say the late Robin Williams or any member of the
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famed Second City troop, studied, prepared, and filled their brains with a plethora of
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references in order to deal with the unexpected in their on-stage performances.
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Another great example is that of beloved chef Julia Child.
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One time on the David Letterman show, she tried to cook a recipe of gourmet hamburgers,
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but the burners wouldn't work and the meat remained stubbornly raw.
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Unfazed, Ms. Child didn't panic or lose focus.
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She just repurposed the burgers as steak tartare on live TV.
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Check it out for yourself.
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It's really cool.
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It's a great YouTube for Julia Child turns a meat steak into a gourmet meal for some
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divine inspiration.
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And, and what a great segue because many times luck arrives like a goodie package from up
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above.
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All you have to do is actually recognize it as one because initially it arrives as a disaster.
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That's easier said than done when things seem to fall apart, but here are three examples
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of those who unwrap the gift of destiny.
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Yale chemistry professor Michael McBride has said, scientists don't have eureka flashes,
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rather they experience, my, that's strange moments.
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Such is the story of Alexander Fleming and his discovery of penicillin.
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Dr. Fleming was notorious for keeping a, well, shall we say a messy lab.
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Before taking off on a month's vacation in August 1928, he stacked a set of dirty, bacteria-filled
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Petri dishes and left them to, well, he left them to, eww.
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When he returned, he saw bacteria growing in every dish except one.
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This was his, my, that's strange moment.
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He wondered what could be killing the bacteria in that one dish.
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He soon learned that while he was away, spores of, let me see if I get this right, spores
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of penicillium notatum had blown in by accident from a neighboring lab and had landed in that
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top dish.
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Dr. Fleming figured that perhaps this mold held therapeutic powers and experimented to
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see what they could be.
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From this lucky and kind of gross break emerged the miracle drug of penicillin and the era
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of antibiotics.
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Less medically important but equally as gross is the story of the origin of oyster sauce
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featuring Lee Cum Shea.
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This salty condiment is now a staple in millions of homes but back in 1888 when Lee was a 26-year-old
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street food vendor in Hong Kong, he left a pot of oyster soup to simmer for too long.
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The result was a brown, sticky mess but before he threw it out, Lee tasted it and to his
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surprise he found that it was delicious.
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So he began making the burnt oyster sauce deliberately and selling it in ceramic jars
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under the Lee Cum Pee brand.
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This brilliant mistake would make his family richer than he could have ever imagined.
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In July of 2021 when Lee's grandson Lee Man Tat died at age 91, the family's wealth
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was valued at more than $17 billion.
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$17 billion?
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Oh hold on for a minute, let me see what I got festering on the stovetop.
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Finally we have the story of the Roomba vacuum cleaner invented by a guy whose name sounds
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like an alias for someone on a witness protection program, namely Joe Jones.
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His floor cleaning robot hit the market in time for the 2002 holidays and was so beloved
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that even cats liked them.
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Yet by 2004 the initial blood faded a bit and sales were lagging big time.
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What did Joe do to turn things around?
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Nothing.
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Roomba worked its way out of trouble by some astounding serendipity.
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The soft drink Pepsi began running a 30 second advertising campaign in which a generic unbranded
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robot vacuum chases a can of soda and devours comedian Dave Chappelle's pets.
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Guess what happened next?
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Roomba's sales immediately surged.
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It was the best money Roomba never spent.
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Without the Pepsi commercial Jones said, Roomba might have died.
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But Dinger didn't because Amazon paid $1.7 billion for the company in August of 2022.
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Speaking about luck, yours is about to change as this episode is coming to an end.
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You can take that any way you like.
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I mentioned earlier that luck is uncontrollable, but in his book The Drunkard's Walk, physicist
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and author Leonard Lodenow exposes the one important factor in luck that is under our
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control and that is, as he puts it, the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the
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number of opportunities seized.
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Even a coin waited for failure will sometimes land on success.
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Or as IBM pioneer Thomas Watson said, if you want to get lucky, double your failure rate.
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Good luck.
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Before I go, if you've dug what you heard or if you hated it, let me know at label sessions
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on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn and although I know I should not, I will read
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every comment and promise to respond to those without spelling, grammar punctuation or other
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such nagging errors.
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So until next episode, CC and GU later.
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This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
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best advice from the most interesting people.
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Around the world, we work with brands to connect their people to true leaders, just like the
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people you hear on this podcast for live sessions of advice, mentorship or sometimes to collaborate
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and ideas.
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To find out more, visit labelsessions.com and book in for a demo with our team.
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,240
This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
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best advice from the most interesting people.
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In this exclusive series, entrepreneur and creative leader Andy Millman takes us through
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00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:16,400
his views on creativity, curiosity and guts.
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00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,680
To find out more about Andy, listen to the Q&A listed in the show notes.
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00:00:19,680 --> 00:00:34,080
To find out more about Label Sessions, visit Labelsessions.com.
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00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:39,920
Welcome back to CCNG, the pot of gold at the end of the podcast rainbow.
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And we'll start off with, oh my god, yes, yes, yet another personal in the trenches
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story.
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This is a long one, I'm warning you, so you may want to grab a drink, or perhaps even
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the six pack.
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Here we go.
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The year was 2000, the month was June, and the mobile media industry, today's leading
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driver of just about everything, well, mobile was not merely in its infancy back then, it
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was in its pre-embryonic stage.
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In fact, it wasn't even con-mobile then.
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The industry term was wireless.
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So as president of a mobile startup called Airborne Entertainment, I was trying to make
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heads or tails as per what wireless was and where it could go.
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So I attended as many industry conferences as I could, wherever they may be.
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And in June 2000, the conference was in Los Angeles, at the glittering Beverly Hilton
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Hotel, home of the Golden Globes Awards ceremony, and of way too many sordid tales of showbiz
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excess to recount here.
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As a company with limited funds, Airborne had to find a way to make noise and bring
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attention to ourselves at these events without the deep pockets of our VC-backed startup
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competition.
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They had money to burn and did so by throwing opulent parties, giving out lavish swag, and
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sponsoring the events and the sessions themselves.
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This not only brought name recognition, but guaranteed them the prestige of prime speaking
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spots in front of the assembled hoard.
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These industry events were no meritocracy.
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You got on stage and got to pump your company in message depending on how much money you
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stuffed into the pockets of the conference organizers.
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Big bucks got you opening, midday, or closing keynotes.
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Smaller bucks got you a spot on a breakout panel or something equally less inspiring.
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Even the act of giving stuff away cost money.
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To distribute swag or company literature, you had to buy a display booth or become what
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was called a promotional partner.
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Well, as the littlest of little fish, we had enough cash for a mere fraction of the aforementioned,
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but the ambition for all of it.
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We knew that there were going to be about 300 people at said conference and immediately
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got to thinking, okay, what can we make 300 copies of but do so cheaply and make an oversized
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impact at this conference?
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In a creative spark storm, yes, long time listeners will realize and I walk my talk,
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in this spark storm, we realized that while a handful of insiders, maybe half the conference
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people, while they believed in the wireless future, the other attendees, the general populace,
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and especially the big brands were still closed minded skeptical.
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Remember, this was seven years away from the launch of the iPhone.
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So when someone on our team quipped, huh, people have to be converted to wireless, the
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light bulb popped, we would come up with a wireless conversion kit.
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We knew that we had to keep expenses low.
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So we found the ultimate and most obvious tool to quote unquote go wireless, a wire
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cutter.
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We could buy them in bulk for 79 cents each.
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But the genius was in the way we packaged them.
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We had a writer named Mark Shane bloom on staff.
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He was a wonderfully geeky guy whose experience lay in comic books, science fiction and superhero
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creation.
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And after a few hilarious drafts from him, our simple wire cutters were attached to a
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colorful piece of laminated cardboard to become the convertix 3.3 wireless conversion utility.
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Height up sales copy on the package shouted convert entertainment to wireless in a snap.
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On top of that, Mark added extra tongue in cheek sales points like perfect for cutting
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your ties to old media models, helpful for convincing others to convert, especially when
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applied to flesh areas.
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In cost in effect in message, they were perfect in every way.
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I couldn't wait to use them.
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As an aside, what's amazing is that I flew to Los Angeles with 300 of these wire cutters
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in two small rolling suitcases, which are actually carried on the plane.
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Remember, this was pre 9 11.
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Anyway, come the day of the conference, I walk into the Beverly Hilton with a pair of
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heavy stuff rolling bags.
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I was staying elsewhere because we couldn't afford the exorbitant rates at the Beverly
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Hilton.
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I attended the major morning ballroom sessions and when everyone broke the lunch prior to
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the big midday keynote, I snuck into the now empty ballroom and put a convertix 3.3 wireless
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conversion utility on every single seat.
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When the programming reconvened, I was one of the first in the room and watched with
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glee as the attendees filed in, picked the wire cutters off their seats and examined
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them.
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They were a bit bewildered at first, but then broke into big smiles as they kept reading.
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Better still, most of them turned to their neighbors to discuss the gimmick and I would
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hope the company that was behind it.
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As I was plotting my next move, i.e. who do I approach and how do I conjure up some business
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for Airborne, as I was plotting, I felt a hand on my shoulder.
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It was a short woman with a wire cutter in her hand who asked innocently, are you the
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person responsible for this?
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Wow, mission accomplished and so quickly, I beamed with excitement and answered with
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a proud yes, yes, yes, yes indeed I am.
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And with that, I felt my past being unceremoniously ripped from my neck.
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You have to leave, she snarled.
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You're not allowed to do this.
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Our sponsors are going nuts.
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Get out of here now.
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Well, I thought of hightailing it back home, but the trip was already paid for.
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I was far away in LA and I didn't want to give up that easily.
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So I decided to hang around and make the most of the situation.
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I would sneak into the lesser attended and security weaker panel sessions where any person
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in the room is a welcome one, pass or no pass.
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And in between these sessions, when I was more likely to be spotted by that woman again,
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I would slither through the corridors and hide in one of the hotel bathrooms.
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She could kick me out of her conference, but not out of the Beverly Hilton itself.
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On her route to one such bathroom escape, I was stopped by a tall, well-dressed man.
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Hey, are you the guy responsible for the wire cutters?
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He asked me.
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I didn't know if he was hotel security or some other unfriendly foe.
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But I answered, yes, anyway.
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I love them, he exploded.
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Turns out he was a Disney executive named Trip Wood looking to bring his company into
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this new wireless world.
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I think they're great, he enthused.
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In fact, I'd like to set up a meeting with you and see how we can work together.
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I was at his office the next day and the glorious end result was a contract to create a mobile
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game, albeit a primitive one, for the film Monsters, Inc.
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That meeting with Trip spawned a five-year professional relationship between Airborne
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and Disney and a friendship that lasts until this day.
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But most important of all, six weeks later in New York, when I went door to door, meeting
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to meeting, pitching the new world of wireless to companies like HBO, A&E, Maxim Magazine,
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The Fool Network, and the NHL, they all said, holy shit, you're working with Disney?
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It gave us instant credibility and helped build Airborne as a mobile media pioneer.
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So yes, I guess as the song goes, some guys have all the luck.
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But how to get lucky is what's important, especially in a business context.
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And after this lengthy diatribe, that's what this episode of CCG is all about.
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Finally, it's a simple lesson, but one that's counterintuitive on multiple levels.
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Let's start, obviously, with an article from my corporate crush, The Wall Street Journal.
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It was written by Biff Matthews.
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I know that sounds like some sort of 80s sitcom character, but he's actually the chairman
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of Longview Asset Management.
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And in his article, he positions the act of investing along the ability slash luck spectrum.
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He cites the book, The Success Equation by Michael Malbusen, which examines the results
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of over 1,400 mutual funds between two successive three-year periods and ultimately concludes
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that, success in investing measured over a three-year period is an activity that is about
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85% luck and only 15% skill.
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He goes on to say that, in every aspect of life, luck is a far more important and uncontrollable
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force than people realize.
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Wise words and perhaps not easy for future masters of the universe to accept, but the
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hand of fate is, at the very least, as strong as your own too.
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But more on that next episode.
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Let's continue this one with a one-question pop quiz.
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Proactive or reactive?
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What's better?
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Let me explain with, you won't believe it, yes, another personal story.
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As mentioned in the last episode, I was a hockey goalie for 20 years.
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On the surface, goaltending seems like a reactive position, because players shoot at you and
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your job is to basically stop the puck.
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But in all actuality, it is extremely proactive, almost like computer programming.
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Elite goalies are taught to anticipate plays, like if player X is here, player Y is there,
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and the puck is there, you do this.
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But once I changed position to play forward, I realized how different it was.
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No matter how hard I tried, proactivity would take a backseat to reactivity.
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Pucks bounce oddly.
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Players on the other team don't do what you want them to do.
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Geez, players on your own team don't do what you want them to do.
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The result is an almost entirely in-the-moment flow, where your previous experience mixes
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with your reaction time to create the next play.
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So if hockey can be a metaphor for business, no wonder renowned Belfast-born economist
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W. Bryant Arthur said,
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We should focus on the ability to react to events, rather than relying on the ability
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to predict them.
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And within that sentence lurks the secret of luck, namely the act of improvisation.
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Ah, improvisation.
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Like love, it's another term not commonly used in the corporate world, a world all about
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quarterly projections, five-year plans, and where do you see yourself ten years from now?
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Not everyone shies away from improvisation, though.
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Bob Kohlhand teaches improv to students and executives and is the author of the book Getting
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to Yes and, for those of you not versed in the art of improvisation, Yes and is the root
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strategy to all improv, but I digress.
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Kohlhand insists that in business,
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Reaction is about reacting, being focused and present in the moment, at a very high
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level.
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We live in a time of constant change and uncertainty.
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The ability to react is necessary to finding solutions that fulfill the demands of the
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marketplace.
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Author Maria Brito agrees.
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In her book How Creativity Rules the World, she says,
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Improvisation isn't a substitute for planning, but rather, an instrument to be used in situations
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that catch us off-guard, or when our strategies haven't prepared us for an unforeseen circumstance.
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The paradox of improvisation is that the more prepared and competent you are, the more creative
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and unpredictable you can be.
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The greater your preparation, the easier it is to relinquish control.
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And that's the counterintuitive element I referenced earlier.
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Improvisation is far, far from just winging it.
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The strongest improviser in the world, say the late Robin Williams or any member of the
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famed Second City troop, studied, prepared, and filled their brains with a plethora of
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references in order to deal with the unexpected in their on-stage performances.
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Another great example is that of beloved chef Julia Child.
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One time on the David Letterman show, she tried to cook a recipe of gourmet hamburgers,
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but the burners wouldn't work and the meat remained stubbornly raw.
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Unfazed, Ms. Child didn't panic or lose focus.
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She just repurposed the burgers as steak tartare on live TV.
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Check it out for yourself.
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It's really cool.
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It's a great YouTube for Julia Child turns a meat steak into a gourmet meal for some
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divine inspiration.
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And, and what a great segue because many times luck arrives like a goodie package from up
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above.
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All you have to do is actually recognize it as one because initially it arrives as a disaster.
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That's easier said than done when things seem to fall apart, but here are three examples
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of those who unwrap the gift of destiny.
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Yale chemistry professor Michael McBride has said, scientists don't have eureka flashes,
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rather they experience, my, that's strange moments.
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Such is the story of Alexander Fleming and his discovery of penicillin.
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Dr. Fleming was notorious for keeping a, well, shall we say a messy lab.
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Before taking off on a month's vacation in August 1928, he stacked a set of dirty, bacteria-filled
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Petri dishes and left them to, well, he left them to, eww.
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When he returned, he saw bacteria growing in every dish except one.
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This was his, my, that's strange moment.
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He wondered what could be killing the bacteria in that one dish.
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He soon learned that while he was away, spores of, let me see if I get this right, spores
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of penicillium notatum had blown in by accident from a neighboring lab and had landed in that
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top dish.
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Dr. Fleming figured that perhaps this mold held therapeutic powers and experimented to
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see what they could be.
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From this lucky and kind of gross break emerged the miracle drug of penicillin and the era
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of antibiotics.
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Less medically important but equally as gross is the story of the origin of oyster sauce
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featuring Lee Cum Shea.
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This salty condiment is now a staple in millions of homes but back in 1888 when Lee was a 26-year-old
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street food vendor in Hong Kong, he left a pot of oyster soup to simmer for too long.
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The result was a brown, sticky mess but before he threw it out, Lee tasted it and to his
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surprise he found that it was delicious.
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So he began making the burnt oyster sauce deliberately and selling it in ceramic jars
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under the Lee Cum Pee brand.
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This brilliant mistake would make his family richer than he could have ever imagined.
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In July of 2021 when Lee's grandson Lee Man Tat died at age 91, the family's wealth
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was valued at more than $17 billion.
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$17 billion?
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Oh hold on for a minute, let me see what I got festering on the stovetop.
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Finally we have the story of the Roomba vacuum cleaner invented by a guy whose name sounds
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like an alias for someone on a witness protection program, namely Joe Jones.
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His floor cleaning robot hit the market in time for the 2002 holidays and was so beloved
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that even cats liked them.
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Yet by 2004 the initial blood faded a bit and sales were lagging big time.
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What did Joe do to turn things around?
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Nothing.
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Roomba worked its way out of trouble by some astounding serendipity.
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The soft drink Pepsi began running a 30 second advertising campaign in which a generic unbranded
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robot vacuum chases a can of soda and devours comedian Dave Chappelle's pets.
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Guess what happened next?
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Roomba's sales immediately surged.
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It was the best money Roomba never spent.
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Without the Pepsi commercial Jones said, Roomba might have died.
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But Dinger didn't because Amazon paid $1.7 billion for the company in August of 2022.
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Speaking about luck, yours is about to change as this episode is coming to an end.
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You can take that any way you like.
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I mentioned earlier that luck is uncontrollable, but in his book The Drunkard's Walk, physicist
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and author Leonard Lodenow exposes the one important factor in luck that is under our
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control and that is, as he puts it, the number of at bats, the number of chances taken, the
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number of opportunities seized.
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Even a coin waited for failure will sometimes land on success.
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Or as IBM pioneer Thomas Watson said, if you want to get lucky, double your failure rate.
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Good luck.
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Before I go, if you've dug what you heard or if you hated it, let me know at label sessions
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on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn and although I know I should not, I will read
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every comment and promise to respond to those without spelling, grammar punctuation or other
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such nagging errors.
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So until next episode, CC and GU later.
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This podcast is brought to you by Label Sessions, the global platform that connects you to the
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