Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

Think Like a Genius
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THE SOURCES OF INNOVATION
Peter Drucker, in his book 
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
(Harper-
Business, 1985), writes that the greatest business breakthroughs
take place as the result of “either the unexpected success or the un-
expected failure.”
He explains that when something unusual or unexpected 
happens in any field, the average person dismisses it as a ran-
dom event or as an accident. The superior person, however, stud-
ies each unexpected result as if it were a sign of an underlying
trend or an indication of a fundamental change in the nature 
of things.
When an experiment in growing bacteria failed because a mold
had blown across the laboratory and landed on the petri dish,
killing the bacteria, the lab assistants were about to throw it out.
However, a bacteriologist, Alexander Fleming, became curious
about a mold that was so powerful that it could kill such strong bac-
teria. His research led to the discovery and development of peni-
cillin, which saved millions of lives in World War II and won him
both a knighthood and the Nobel prize.
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