The 3M Company encourages creativity from its employees. The company allows its researchers to spend 15 percent of their time on any project that interests them. This attitude has brought fantastic benefits not only to the employees but to the 3M Company itself many times; a spark of an idea turned into a successful product has boosted 3M's profits tremendously.

Some years ago, a scientist in 3M's commercial office took advantage of this 15 percent creative time. This scientist, Art Fry, came up with an idea for one of 3M's best-selling products. It seems that Art Fry dealt with a small irritation every Sunday as he sang in the church choir. After marking his pages in the hymnal with small bits of paper, the small pieces would invariably fall out all over the floor.

Suddenly, an idea struck Fry. He remembered an adhesive developed by a colleague that everyone thought was a failure because it did not stick very well. "I coated the adhesive on a paper sample," Fry recalls, "and I found that it was not only a good bookmark, but it was great for writing notes. It will stay in place as long as you want it to, and then you can remove it without damage."

Yes, Art Fry hit the jackpot. The resulting product was called Post-it! and has become one of the 3M's most successful office products.

The things that irritate you could spark the change you seek. Giving yourself time to think through how things can be better is a much better way to deal with challenges compared to thinking how badly affected you are by the challenges. 

Make time for your problems. It is not good to hold onto your challenges like trophies but it is profitable to look at your problems sometimes. But that time should be focused on finding a way around it. 15% of your time should be focused on your problems but here’s the rub, it must be spent on the problem with a clear focus and expectation in mind.

Turn your hurdles into objectives. By turning his rather irritating situation of the paper bookmarks falling out of the hymnbook into a project, Art Fry eventually realized that the problem had a solution in someone’s supposedly failed project.  

So my dear friends, what’s niggling you today? How much time are you going to give it? All the answers are in the problem and your environment. You can hit your own jackpot today! If you don’t keep trying but it will surely come. Another’s endpoint could be your starting point.

Go Forward Make Rain!

I am Nhyira Addo - The Rainmaker 

Shalom