WD-40: Success Built on 39 FailuresHow a lab code became a global icon

From the show

Iconic Names Explained

Norm Larsen failed 39 times to create a corrosion inhibitor for missiles before finding the formula that stuck. By keeping the lab code as the product name, the brand accidentally signaled industrial-grade reliability to the mass market. This story explores how a simple tally of errors transformed into the world's most trusted fix-all tool.