The ten minutes that changed your life.

To Be or Not to Be!
The ten minutes that changed your life.

Just yesterday I was talking to Jeff Pulver about his thoughts on chance, providence, and good old luck. I was thinking that each of us must have experienced an episode that changed our life, shaped our career, secured our financial well-being or brought about fame. Some of us have had several, but if I asked you to recount the most critical ten minute segment in your CAREER, what would it be? And how did luck/coincidence/providence/hard work figure in? Here is mine, an excerpt from my new book (coming out in a few weeks) entitled "Save Your Breath".

"…In frustration, I petitioned Tel Aviv University to let me manufacture samples of the two-phase mouthwash by myself (this would have been a disaster, as I still have no manufacturing expertise). At the last moment, fate took the form of a telephone call. Chaim Regev, head of marketing at Israel's largest manufacturer of toothpastes and other household products (Shemen-Soad Ltd.), had heard about the mouthwash formula from a newspaper article. He told me that they had thousands of empty mouthwash bottles lying around, and had been thinking of throwing them out. Could I fill them, he wanted to know. I explained the advantages of the two-phase product, and mentioned the issue of having to shake it before use. Chaim Regev turned the disadvantage into an advantage. "We'll emphasize the need for shaking. We'll color each phase in bold hues. People with bad breath won't mind shaking a container if they believe the results will be positive."

The product turned into a hit in Israel, then was followed by a British version that became Dentyl pH, the second bestselling mouthwash in the UK.