"All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust..."

The Scottish writer, J.M. Barrie is best known as the creator of Peter Pan, the main character in his 1904 play and 1911 novel, Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.  The stage play was a huge success, and the novel was an instant bestseller.  In fact, the novel has never been out of print.  Peter Pan was further immortalized in the 1953 Walt Disney film of the same name, which has always been one of my favorite Disney films.

What's not as well known is that in 1929, Barrie gifted the copyright for Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the leading children's hospitals in the world.  In 1988, the House of Lords passed a special amendment to the United Kingdom's Copyright Designs and Patent Act, which gave the rights to Peter Pan to the hospital in perpetuity.  In honor of Barrie's gift, there is a statue of Peter Pan at the entrance to the hospital, although he looks a little different than the character in the Disney film.

One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Peter Pan teaches the three Darling children how to fly - "All you need is faith, trust, and a little pixie dust" (the scene is accompanied by the song, "You can fly").  As my children will attest, the Peter Pan ride at the Disney theme parks is my absolute favorite.  

I've referred to magical "pixie dust" (technically, "fairy dust") a few times in the past (see "Vontae Mack no matter what").  ESPN anchor Chris Berman says at the end of the 2014 movie, "Draft Day", that "General manager Sonny Weaver, Jr. took one pick in the first round, the number seven pick. He sprinkled it with fairy dust, wished upon a star, and somehow, he turned it into not one, not two, but three potentially impactful players for his team next year. One pick!"  In other words, a little "pixie dust" creates magic - it's one of the key ingredients for innovation!

I am using "pixie dust" metaphorically, of course.  With a little innovation and creativity, one can create the proverbial something out of nothing - just like magic!  With a little persistence and focus, even the small things can be turned into something special.  Unfortunately, more often than not, we fail to appreciate just how special these "small things" can be in our lives.  We spend more time focusing on the big and important things, when at times, the seemingly insignificant or mundane things may be just as important.  

Think about it.  We very rarely perceive how things can change, even during a single day.  Let's say that you want to get in shape or take off a few of the COVID-19 pounds that you gained over the pandemic.  You go to the gym today, or eat a salad for lunch instead of a turkey sandwich.  You don't necessarily notice the impact of that single work-out or that one-time decrease in calories on your overall level of fitness or weight.  Not after a single day anyway.  But over time, those small little changes can turn into something much bigger, and pretty soon you are running 3 miles again without getting out of breathe, or you are back to your pre-pandemic "fighting weight."  Every little thing counts, and the journey of 1,000 miles begins with just one small step.  That's the way that continuous improvement works.

I discussed the concept of the "butterfly effect" in my last post (see "For want of a nail..."), which describes how small events can grow and propagate to produce an extraordinarily big impact.  Under the right set of conditions, we can leverage the "butterfly effect" to our advantage.  I am not necessarily talking about setting in motion something like the "butterfly effect," but rather creating the necessary conditions through which a small event can grow and become a big event - in this case, a positive or beneficial "big event."  An approach based upon diversity, creativity, and innovation (back to "pixie dust") can produce what the safety science researcher, Sidney Dekker has called (see his book, "Drift into Failure"), a "drift into success."

Case in point - a few years ago, a 26 year-old Montreal man traded a red paper-clip for a house.  Technically, he traded the red paper-clip for a pen shaped like a fish, but through a series of 14 trades and swaps, he eventually ended up with a house!  It took him a little over a year to do it, but the story of how he accomplished the feat is both entertaining and instructive (you can watch his TED talk here).  Along the way, he met rocker Alice Cooper and actor Corbin Bernsen.  

Drift into success.  Turn a red paper-clip into a house.  Sprinkle on a little pixie dust.  That's all it takes.