Breaking Shoes

“I heard something the other day from a cobbler…”

He told me superglue was invented to close wounds in the Vietnam war.
And that it’s actually best for skin… not shoes (they were my shoes!).

Now, that story is not quite true.
But it is rooted in truth.

Because when you look at it in real life, he’s right about one thing:

Superglue doesn’t work on shoes (I learned the hard way!).
Shoes bend. They move. Superglue drys brittle and doesn’t bend well!  

And it was used in the Vietnam War to close wounds quickly.

But here’s the bit I love.

Superglue was never invented to be glue.

It was a failed attempt for screens in tanks during the Second World War.
Too sticky. Too messy. Useless.

Until the inventor looked at it again years later… differently.

And that happens more than we think.

Sticky Notes? Failed strong glue.
Viagra? Failed heart drug.
Play-Doh? Failed wallpaper cleaner.

Same thing.
Different context.
Completely different outcome.

And that’s the problem with how we often make business decisions.

We look at things in isolation.
In boardrooms. In data. In theory.

Instead of asking:

How does this show up in real life?
Where does it actually work… or not work?

Because the truth is:

It’s not what something is.
It’s how it behaves in the world.

And that’s where the real insight lives