THE CARROT(ISH) AFFAIR!

During the World War 2, Commander John Cunningham was a popular name.

He was the leader of a night fighter regiment.

His regiment holds the record for shooting down a maximum number of aircraft’s, compared to other night fighters.

The reason behind this super performance was John Cunningham’s incredible eyesight.

He had a habit of eating lots of carrots.

Carrots have lots of Vitamin A, that improves the eyesight, and also helps the eyes to recover quickly after subjected to a heavy flash of bright light.

It became big news because people in those days were not aware of Vitamins.

John Cunningham became a hero.

To preserve the super sensitivity of his night vision, he used to wear dark sunglasses in the day.

He only took out the glasses in the night, to spot the enemy aircraft.

But was it true?

Can only eating carrots would be sufficient to spot fighter airplanes in the night?

No.

It was a military propaganda.

Behind the propaganda of Cunningham’s ‘Cat Eyes’, there was a secret that Royal Air Force wanted to hide.

RAF had invented a two-purpose radar system.

One of its functions was to guide ground-based night fighters to bomber formations.

And the other was to guide the aircraft pilot to an individual bomber.

This radar system was first made available to Cunningham’s squadron.

RAF kept this radar system as a secret and gave the credit to Cunningham’s eyes.

If the enemy found out the newly invented radar system, then they will come up with a counter strategy and equipment.

Germany felt into this propaganda, and held Cunningham’s powerful eyesight responsible, for losing so many of their superb bombers.

After a long time, they discovered this secret, but it was too late for them.

For most people, something that captures the imagination is more powerful than something that just captures reason.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on” ~ Winston Churchill.

The Superhero Beggar

A royal hefty elephant turns wild and escapes into the town.

The mightiest soldiers were putting their best to capture the elephant.

But their efforts were yielding no results.

A beggar wakes up from his sleep hearing all this chaos.

He observes that the mad elephant and the brave soldiers are running in circles.

Disturbed by this commotion, the beggar approaches the mad elephant.

He grabs the chain tied to elephant leg and pulls it.

Within seconds, the elephant is tumbled to the ground.

Everyone is flabbergasted by the superhuman act demonstrated by the beggar.

The soldier captures the grounded elephant.

The beggar goes back to his sleep.

The beggar’s act of bravery becomes the talk of the town.

The King is impressed and wants to reward him with royal treasures.

But the Minister stops the King from rewarding the beggar.

“A Street-side beggar, who can defeat a mad elephant”, Minister continues, “can also dethrone you”.

The King gets worried.

The worrisome King asked his Minister,’ ‘Should we kill him or put him in prison’?

‘That won’t help,’ answers the Minister, ‘he is a hero now.’

‘Reward him not with treasures, but by offering him the job of lighting the lamps of town in the evening, and blowing it off in the morning,’ advise the Minister.

“How will it help,” queries the King.

“It will, have trust in me,” assures the witty Minister.

The beggar is invited to the palace.

After luring him with a royal feast, the King offers him the job.

The beggar accepts the offer.

Every evening, the beggar will rush out to the streets to light the street lamps.

And at dawn, he would be blowing out the lamps.

The beggar had taken his job seriously.

3 months gets passed.

The Minister tells the King, that the time has come to test the beggar.

On the Kings order, a (normal) weak elephant is made to run on the streets.

The Soldiers put their act and are running behind the elephant.

The stage is set.

Hearing the commotion, the beggar comes out of his small house.

He approaches the running elephant.

He grabs the chain tied to elephant leg.

But, instead of tumbling the elephant, it is the beggar who plummets to the ground.

The soldiers pick him up.

Everyone is surprised.

The beggar, who had defeated a hefty wild animal, is thrown to the ground by a weak Elephant.

What happened to his strength?

The King asks his Minister,” What happened to his strength”?

The Minister replies.

The beggar was living a carefree life.

Entire day he used to lie on the street.

Food was easily available to him.

He did not have any mental tensions.

Things changed for him when he got the job.

He had to get up early.

He had to run down the streets.

His mind was occupied by thoughts of how to perform better every day at the job.

He was loaded with mental tension.

This resulted in the decline of his strength.

Now he is not a superhuman beggar.

He is merely an ordinary worker of your kingdom.

The Minister is rewarded heavily by the King.

Story of Post It Notes!

Dr. Spencer Silver was a scientist at 3M, United States.

In 1968, he was putting all his efforts to develop a powerful adhesive.

But his efforts are backfired.

Instead of a powerful adhesive, the output of his experiment came in the form of low tack, reusable, squeezing adhesive.

The adhesive had enough power to stick papers together, and it can be reused multiple times.

For the next five years, he tried persuading his co-workers and superiors at 3M through formal and informal seminars.

Silver marketed the adhesive as a spray for sticking notices temporarily on bulletin boards.

But no one took him seriously.

The silver adhesive was a solution to a problem that does not exist.

So, why would anyone back it?

On the other hand, Arthur Fry a colleague of Silver was facing a problem.

Fry, who used to sing in a church choir, was having trouble time in sticking the paper bookmarks in his hymnal.

Whenever he opened his book of hymns, the paper bookmarks drifted out.

Whatever he tried to keep the paper bookmarks together was in vain.

One day he attended Spencer seminar.

It gave Fry a brilliant idea of using the adhesive to stick the paper bookmarks.

It would perfectly hook the bookmarks in his hymnal.

Fry presented the idea of sticky notes to his superiors. At first, they were doubtful, but later they gave their full support.

It took another 5 years to design and develop the machines to manufacture this product.

On April 6, 1980, the efforts of Silver Spencer and Arthur fry were launched nationwide in the US.

The product was named, “Post It Notes”.

Within 2 years Post It Notes became an important stationary item in houses, offices, educational institutes, etc.

For this outstanding product, 3M honored Silver and Fry with highest honors and awards.

Though, Silver created the solution first. It was not backed by anyone because it was not solving any problem.

But people understood when Arthur Fry came up with a problem that matched the solution discovered by Spencer.

Sometimes the solution arrives in our life before the problem; we only need to match the existing solution with the problem that we are facing.

There is always a way!

In 1915, the great novelist P.G Wodehouse created a character by named Reginald Jeeves.

Jeeves is an intelligent and infallible valet of a wealthy young Londoner named Bertie Wooster.

Bertie has a friend by name Bruce Corcoran ( Corky) an inspiring and destitute artist, who manages to get along by drawing an occasional picture for the comic papers.

However, his primary source of income comes from his rich uncle Alexander Worple, an owner of jute’s business, and an ornithologist.

Corky’s uncle wants him to chuck art and go into the jute business and start from the bottom.

Apart from this, Corky has another problem.

He is in love with a girl Miss Singer, a theatre artist.

Corky is assured that his uncle will not allow him to marry a girl of his own choice.

Therefore, he needs Bertie’s help and advice to make makes Miss Singer’s acquaintance without knowing that you know her.

Bertie assured his friend that Jeeves will find a solution to this problem.

After listening to Corky’s pain, Jeeves comes out with an idea.

He suggests that Corky should take advantage of his uncle attachment to ornithology.

Jeeves suggests that the lady should write a book on birds and dedicate to Corky’s uncle.

But Miss Singer had never written a good letter, forget about writing a book.

Jeeves throws another idea.

Find an impecunious author and made him write it for a minimal fee, and put the lady’s name on the title page.

Everybody agrees to this.

Bertie takes the responsibility of financing this superb plan of Jeeves&Co.

But the plan gets backfired, and instead of marrying Corky, Miss Singer marries his uncle — Alexander Worple.

A year gets passed.

Corky gets his first assignment of painting the baby of his uncle and Miss Singer ( Mrs. Alexander Worple).

He takes the job half-heartedly if he refuses his uncle will stop his allowance.

After finishing the portrait, Corky calls Bertie and ask for his help. He feels that there is something not right about the portrait.

Bertie, along with Jeeves rush to the studio to inspect the portrait.

And, they noticed that the portrait of the baby is ugly on all angles.

Then arrives Mr. Alexander.

He looks at the portrait and yells at Corky.

He tells him that is not a portrait but an extract from a comic colored supplement.

He wants Corky to throw his dream of becoming a painter, and report to his office on Monday morning.

If he does not show up then he won’t get a dime from him. Uncle leaves in anger.

Jeeves, who is watching all the drama steps forward and tells Corky that ‘there is always a way.’ The portrait is ugly, but it can be a foundation for a series of humorous drawings.

He gives him an example of a Mr. Thistleton who once patented a depilatory which failed. But he did not give up and put the product on the market again under the name of Hair-O, guaranteed to produce a full crop of hair in a few months. The product became a hit and brought Mr.Thistleton a fortune.

After hearing Jeeves, Corky glared at the picture and began to stagger on the floor.

“Jeeves, you are right! You are a life saver,” were the words coming out from his mouth.

Corky, took the picture to the man he knows who runs the comic section of the Sunday Star.

The ugly portrait became the foundation of “The Adventures of Baby Blobbs.” It became an important part of Sunday Star. It brought Corky a big fortune and fame.

Everything has a value. Even a broken clock shows the right time twice. Never underestimate your creativity. If you look deeply at your problems you will notice that ‘there is always a way’.

Whatever happens happens for good.