“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” ~Charles H. Duell, an official at the US patent office, 1899

“X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” ~Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883

“Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.” ~Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” ~Thomas J. Watson, Chairman of the Board of IBM, 1943

“With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.” ~Business Week, 1958

“The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.” ~Literary Digest, 1899

“There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” ~Albert Einstein, 1932

“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” ~Western Union internal memo, 1876

“Fooling around with alternating current is just a waste of time. Nobody will use it, ever.” ~Thomas Edison, American inventor, 1889

“Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” ~Dr. Dionysys Larder, professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, 1793-1859

Today these statements seem preposterous. How could experts be so wrong? Did the general public really accept this thinking? Yes. Just like many people do today.

While conventional wisdom is sometimes hard to spot, its defenders often expose it by trying to discredit and suppress people who threaten it… like those with contrary views, new information or alternative answers. When defenders have little evidence or logic to justify their positions, they often attack truth seekers as they represent the greatest threat. In addition, defenders sometimes resort to manipulation, clichés and propaganda to build support for their beliefs. For example, some politicians and their followers chant “Drill Baby Drill” to reinforce the conventional wisdom regarding our national security, independence and need for more oil. While simple repetition proves nothing, it does rally the troops and reinforces conventional wisdom. The ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has many Americans reconsidering this chant and the conventional wisdom it proclaims regarding the need for more oil.

Whether it’s energy, healthcare, business or an interpersonal struggle you’re going through… it’s important to remain cognizant and not simply default to the quick, simple and convenient answers conventional wisdom offers. While eliminating independent critical thinking may be tempting… it’s rarely a good solution. At some point, conventional wisdom is always confronted by reality. If it aligns well enough, it stays; if it doesn’t, it’s replaced by new thinking. This cycle has been in place since the beginning of recorded history. It is maintained by those who blindly follow conventional wisdom, by those who defend it, by those who question it… and by those who change it and create new realities. Where do you fall within this cycle?

One day we were jamming when Jim, our lead guitarist, started playing Happy Together by the Turtles. It was funny at first… but then we all joined in and something clicked. While it was outside our genre, something about this song resonated with us. In fact, our version of Happy Together not only sounded great… it was fun to play. So now what? How do you transition from Black Dog and Iron Man to Happy Together? We weren’t certain, but we had an upcoming gig and decided to find out.

It was the night before our gig and we had been practicing hard all week. Since we hadn’t performed Happy Together publicly, we decided to go over it a few more times. Jim was/is a talented musician and he had figured out all the harmonies, including a great three-part harmony for the “Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba” part. (If you’ve never heard this song, I apologize… but you should do so.)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Oh yes, there’s something I neglected to mention… it was for good reason that our bass guitar player rarely sang. He was notoriously off-key and pitchy (I’m being polite). Perhaps that’s what amazed Jim and me the most about us playing Happy Together… he actually sang one of the harmony parts.

Back to practice… I was singing lead and Jim was singing background harmony when we reached this part of the song…

Me and you and you and me
No matter how they toss the dice, it has to be
The only one for me is you, and you for me
So happy together

Then we all jumped in…
Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba

Before we could hit the second, Ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba, Jim stopped playing, turned and looked directly at me. Accept for the ring in our ears, the room was silent.

“What are you doing?” Jim asked looking confused. “You’re completely off-key… maybe we aren’t ready to perform this yet!”

I was irritated, embarrassed and somewhat dumbfounded… but not totally surprised. I didn’t respond at first. I respected Jim. More importantly, I knew he was right. In an effort to compensate for the bass guitarist, I was compromising my part. I was singing off tune to try to get us in harmony. I had been doing so all week… just not to this degree. That night during practice, my extra effort crossed the line and Jim called me on it. Explaining my actions meant telling the truth… the truth we all knew, but didn’t want to talk about. When the facts are on the table, you’re able to address the situation and make progress. That’s what we did. We made some modifications to the harmonies… and Happy Together was back on track and well received by the audience.

That night at practice I learned some valuable lessons about harmony… and not only about music, but life, too. It’s easy to slip into denial or to try and fix what’s wrong by overcompensating for someone who isn’t doing his or her part. And sometimes, to a degree, it may be okay or even necessary. But in the long run, it doesn’t work. Honesty truly is still the best policy.

I’m glad Jim was honest about my performance. I think most people prefer knowing the truth. We want to honestly know how we’re performing. I know I do. It’s hard to improve and find yourself when you don’t know where you stand. Ironically, even with the best of intentions, when we bend reality in an effort to create “harmony”… we accomplish just the opposite. Twisting the truth creates confusion… and that leads to disharmony. By turning a blind eye (or deaf ear) or compromising our part (not doing what we know is right), more times than not, we’re creating disharmony. True harmony requires that we each do our part… open and honestly.

While labels simplify the world, provide context and help us organize our thoughts, they don’t define reality. In business, people are given titles to describe a role or position. These labels don’t describe who they are, or what they’re capable of doing. The same holds true with children. Have you ever heard a conversation along these lines?

“My daughter is gifted… she’s in all the advanced classes!”

“That’s wonderful, my son is LD… actually, he’s ADD… and in special classes.

“My oldest son is ADHD and he went on to college. My daughter is average… she’s getting by in regular classes… if she worked harder she could be in AP courses.”

On and on it goes, label after label, never recognizing that these limiting labels don’t define their children. These labels help institutions and adults organize, categorize and contextualize their thoughts and objectives. Furthermore, adhering to these labels is not only limiting, it can skew a person’s real potential. Embracing labels keeps the “experts” responsible for coining them in business. And this promotes more label making. Most “experts” have special titles themselves. These special labels are valuable to those who wear them. They say, “I’m qualified and smart”… regardless of whether it’s true or not.

It’s easy to be fooled by labels. We see it regularly in politics. Someone is labeled a liberal, moderate, conservative… and so on. But when you study their actions (not their words), you realize that many labels don’t align with reality. Regardless of the subject matter, once you start looking beyond labels and focusing on reality, the world appears very differently… and the door to new possibilities swings open.

In my book, “Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions” I discuss a psychological phenomenon we all suffer from called perceptual blindness. In essence, our mind filters the world around us… and what we let in becomes our reality. This is what makes labels dangerous… they can prevent us from seeing the big picture… the “real” world.

For the next few weeks, take note of all the words and labels people use to describe you. Think about the words and labels you use to describe yourself. Do the same with your children, family members and peers. Once you become conscious of labels, you will begin to see how limiting and often skewed they can be. Labels don’t define reality… and they certainly don’t define us… unless we let them.

A few years back, Deere hired me to design a coffee table book that would capture its rich history and more importantly, convey its core values. The title of the book was Genuine Values. I, along with the CEO and a few senior executives, built this idea around the following values: integrity, quality, commitment and innovation. We felt these words best reflected the core values exhibited by its founder and that have successfully guided Deere up to today.

In my new book, Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, I share the John Deere story from a different perspective… from its very inception. It’s easy to talk about the after effects… the success story that followed. But when you realize this international corporation started when one young man saw a “problem” as a solution… the story is even more amazing.

Let me take you back 173 years: For U.S. farmers in the eastern states, a cast-iron plow worked fine. But for farmers who tried using it to cultivate crops in the rich Midwest soil, it was a disaster. In fact, attempting to cut through tough prairie ground with a cast-iron plow was problematic to say the least. Trying to use one in the sticky rich soil without it getting clogged was nearly impossible.

Many knowledgeable people (experts) focused on this problem. Perhaps that was the problem. The more they focused on it, the bigger it seemed to become. In time, most people and experts alike concluded it was too big… they accepted the “problem” for what it was and gave up.

Then a young blacksmith (an outsider named John Deere) moved to the Midwest from out east. He learned of this “problematic” situation. But he was a “Pink Bat” thinker… so instead of focusing on the “problems,” he focused on solutions instead. He tried many different plow concepts and while none of them were successful, he learned from each failure and refused to quit.

One day as he walked to work, a glint of sunlight reflected off an old discarded saw blade. To the sawmill, this old blade represented a worthless, worn out piece of steel… a problem. To young John Deere, it was a beautifully honed piece of smooth steel… a perfect solution. After pulling it from the junk pile, he took it to his shop and created a plow that worked great in the rich (previously considered problematic) Midwest soil. The rest, so to speak, is history.

History is filled with Pink Bat examples (unseen solutions mislabeled as problems). What’s more important is that today’s world is full of them, too. They surround us every day. Often they are mislabeled as problems… but they’re really solutions just waiting to be seen. Like John Deere, we are each capable of turning problems into solutions… the key is seeing things for what they are and what they aren’t… and using our imaginations to see them for what they can be.

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

His accusation came during a discussion concerning healthcare. Jim’s position was pretty simple: Government should stay the hell out of healthcare… period. After a few more statements along the same vein, I realized Jim, like many U.S. citizens, had taken the bait. By bait, I mean the propaganda that has become the faulty cornerstone of the so-called “healthcare” debate. What made me a radical in his eyes is that I didn’t accept it. I was interested in discussing “health” care… not “sick” care. Jim wanted to argue about government involvement, insurance companies, hospitals, drug companies and so on… politics.

When you stop listening to rhetoric and start looking at reality (facts and evidence), most “problems” start looking different. Healthcare is no exception. It has little to do with the issues being discussed in Washington or in the media.

Take heart disease. It kills 40% of Americans, more than any other injury or ailment… and it’s been doing so for years. So what is heart disease? One of the key components is plaque that builds up in the coronary arteries. If left untreated, it can completely block blood flow to the heart or rupture and form a blood clot causing a heart attack. Why does this happen? Some people have a genetic predisposition. Since my grandfathers died from heart attacks, and since my father has had three bypass surgeries, a stent and most recently, a pacemaker installed, I am one of those people. So I don’t take genetic predispositions lightly, but I also know genetics only set the stage and do not solely determine our fate.

Another indicator is cholesterol. If your cholesterol level is high, you’re at risk of heart disease. The great news… and the news that made me a radical in Jim’s eyes… is that you can avoid heart disease and most other major diseases as well through a “healthy” diet and lifestyle. Other than fish on occasion, I stopped eating meat several years ago. Within three months of doing so, my cholesterol levels dropped 60 points and have remained low ever since. A recent physical had my cholesterol level at 147 mg/dL (according to currently accepted medical belief it should be under 180).

I addressed the “health” problem… not the symptoms. I exercise and eat a plant-based diet… that’s real healthcare and that’s what Jim didn’t want to discuss. He was too focused on symptoms… not causes. It was after I pointed out the cost of typical bypass heart surgery and medical treatment vs. a healthy diet and lifestyle that he called me a radical.

As I enjoyed my wonderful vegetarian dinner, Jim washed down several pills including his high blood pressure and cholesterol medications before digging into his big chicken dinner with greasy fries. What more needed to be said? Since I value our friendship, I decided to change the subject.

When you look at the typical American diet and lifestyle, the health “problem” becomes pretty clear… so does the “solution.” Surgeries and medications address  symptoms… not the root problem. If looking at reality and making intelligent choices that violate or threaten the status quo makes me a radical… then so be it. I proudly accept the title.

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.

Since our brain filters through volumes of random data each moment, selecting and rejecting evidence to support our beliefs, we need to consciously define and focus our attention on what it is we are seeking.

Look at the following words and quickly say the actual color aloud (not the word).

If you’re like most people, even this simple challenge requires effort to reprogram your brain. With practice, this task becomes easier once you focus more on the color and less on the actual word.

What we believe and focus on… becomes our reality. If you go out looking for trouble, you’ll find it. If you focus on happiness, it will appear. Once you decide what you’re looking for, your brain will go to work to find it and make it your reality. Whether you’re focused on problems or solutions, it doesn’t matter… your brain will subconsciously gather evidence and make it your reality.

Remember, evidence that could disprove our beliefs is marginalized or blocked by our brain filters, while weaker or even false evidence is distorted or enhanced to support them.

Since labeling something helps make it so, why not start by labeling a “problem” as a “solution”? While this may seem counterintuitive at first, successful people have been seeing problems as solutions since the beginning of time.

The next time you’re faced with “problems” consider this… unseen solutions (Pink Bats) seem to emerge more frequently when “problems” are abundant. In math, when you multiply negative numbers, you get a positive solution. The same often holds true with problems (negatives). As they multiply, “Pink Bats Solutions” appear… the key is to suspend our judgments, use our imaginations and remain open-minded enough to see them.

This content is based on my newly released book: Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, available at our store for a special introductory price of $12.

Subconsciously, our brain selects what we believe is possible, plausible and “real,” while ignoring or blocking everything else. Have you ever been in a noisy room with many conversations going on at once when out of nowhere you hear your name mentioned?

That’s your filter at work. Since you consider your name to be important, your brain filters out the less important information and focuses on your name. It’s this selection and rejection process that establishes your sense of reality. It also establishes what you consider a “problem” and what you consider a “solution.”

Modifying our brain filter isn’t easy. It’s even harder when those around us share similar beliefs and expectations. It’s hard to see a new solution when it has been labeled and accepted as a problem… but it is possible.

Mislabeling happens everywhere. You can see it in business, education… actually you can find it in every aspect of life… once you start looking. When we learn to see beyond labels, new realities start to emerge. This is where enormous potential exists.

It’s difficult to find new solutions when we override reality with misguided labels and beliefs. It’s like being lost… yet continuing to follow a flawed road map. Sometimes it’s a good idea to look out the windshield to see where you really are… the map (and label) is never the territory. When we believe how things should or shouldn’t be, rather than how they are, we are living inside an illusion.

The more we accept illusions, the more we block out reality. Likewise, when we focus on problems, we block out solutions. We can become so focused on “problems,” we can’t see anything else.

Look at this series of geometric shapes:

At first they appear meaningless. That’s because most people focus on the black shapes and ignore the white shapes in between. When you focus on the white shapes, the black shapes become less important and suddenly, “SOLUTIONS” appear.

Many “problems” are mislabeled, unseen solutions… and at the very least, new opportunities just waiting for you to recognize them and take action.

This content is based on my newly released book: Pink Bat: Turning Problems Into Solutions, available at our store for a special introductory price of $12.

Believing I knew the quickest route to and from my office, I decided one night after work to see if my GPS concurred. I touched the “Home” button and in moments a pleasant female voice announced, “Please proceed to the highlighted route,” so I did. As predicted, the route it had calculated was the same as mine… until I reached a particular intersection. It was then my cheerful navigator confidently said, “Turn left in 500 feet – turn left.” This made no sense.

Turning left would have taken me the long way home—several miles more. Knowing this, I ignored her advice and took my regular route. Her response? “When possible, make a legal U-turn.” To reinforce her point, a U-turn arrow was displayed on the monitor. When I ignored them both, she started repeating, “When possible, make a legal U-turn,” and the arrow flashed. It was probably my imagination, but each time she repeated herself, I swear her voice seemed to grow more irritated.

Within two miles of my home, both the verbal and visual GPS commands abruptly stopped… then something unbelievable happened. It was a miracle! Well, maybe not a miracle, but it was pretty amazing. Driving along, I casually glanced over at my GPS display and discovered I was traveling in or on a lake! My mind raced as I firmly gripped the steering wheel. For a split second I envisioned myself hydroplaning across the lake… or worse yet, driving under water. I quickly glanced out the windshield to find neither was happening. I was still safely driving on the same road I had traveled down for months… crisis averted! But it made me realize… had I been traveling in unfamiliar territory, I probably would have followed the GPS directions and taken the long route to my destination.

The problem was my GPS didn’t know this section of road existed. It had been added after I purchased my GPS, so it was operating on outdated information. The territory had changed but the GPS data hadn’t. Suddenly Alfred Korzybski’s words entered my mind, “The map is not the territory.” How true. It’s easy to confuse maps with territories… people do it all the time. An accurate map can sometimes help us, but it’s important to remember… it’s never the territory. Some people stubbornly or blindly follow maps and plans that don’t align with reality. Some even go so far as to try and make reality conform to their beliefs.

Later that night I decided to update my GPS data. As I read the user’s manual, I came across the following Safety Information: Failure to avoid the following potentially hazardous situations could result in an accident or collision, resulting in death or serious injury.
-When navigating, carefully compare information displayed on the unit to all available navigation sources, including information from street signs, visual sightings, and maps.
-Do not become distracted by the unit while driving.
-The unit is not designed to replace the need for driver attentiveness regarding road conditions, traffic congestion, or weather conditions.

What sound advice. Whether it’s business, law, education, politics, religion… or driving a car, the Safety Information outlined in my GPS user’s manual makes sense. The map is not the territory… and the territory is always changing. Keep your eye on the road… and make certain the maps you’re following align with reality.