Solutions That Stick

In 1942 when researchers were searching for a way to make clear plastic gun sights, they formulated a substance called cyanoacrylates. It didn’t work. In fact, they considered it a big problem. Why? It stuck to everything! Based on this, they rejected it.

In 1951 a new team of researchers rediscovered the formula. But this time, rather than reject it, one of the scientists was intrigued with its bonding properties. By viewing it for what it really was (and by contrast, seeing it for what it wasn’t), he set his imagination to work and saw it for what it could be.

His solution? Cyanoacrylates made for an amazing SUPER GLUE! In fact, it could bond almost anything you could imagine. The stickiness problem became the solution… or so it seemed.

Paradoxically, when it was discovered that the formula really did bond nearly anything, including human skin, its strength quickly became its perceived weakness. For the company planning to produce this new product, the potential legal issues and dangers far outweighed the benefits. Once again, cyanoacrylates became a problem.

That is, until the U.S. military heard about it. At the time, doctors in Vietnam were looking for a quick way to suture wounded soldiers. This “problem” substance once again became a great solution and saved many people’s lives in the process. Cyanoacrylates in one form or another are still being used today in medical applications around the world.

By adding a warning label to the tube, Super Glue quickly became a household solution. In addition to fixing broken items, mending wounds, cyanoacrylates is a solution for many other things as well… including a forensic tool to capture latent fingerprints on non-porous surfaces like glass, plastic, etc.

And to think it was once considered a problem! How many solutions have you mistakenly rejected and shelved as problems? Maybe it’s time to revisit some of them—through new lenses. The key to finding solutions is to see things for what they are… and not what they’re labeled… or what we want them to be. By keeping an open mind, and applying our imaginations, we can create a world filled with new solutions and endless opportunities.

This content is based on my newly released book: Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, available at our store.

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