17 Dec 2025 · 3 min
A short episode of the Optimize plus one podcast (episode '+1: #785 WD-Optimizing40') in which Brian Johnson recounts the origin story of WD-40 — that the name stands for 'Water Displacement 40th Formula', created by chemist Norm Larsen in 1953 after 39 failed attempts — and uses it as a metaphor to celebrate perseverance, repeated experimentation, and eventual breakthrough.
You're listening to Optymyze with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. A couple plus ones ago we hung out with a world class Ferrari pit stop crew and took a moment to celebrate all the people in our pit stop cruise while committing to stepping up our pit crew games for those we're blessed to serve. Today I want to talk about WD40. I've actually been meaning to talk about it for a while and today seems like a good day. Of course, I have no idea if pit stop crews use WD40 and I'm pretty sure the Ferrari guys don't, but it seems like a good opportunity to slip in a fun story. So here we are, WD40. For those who may not be familiar with this super lubricating product, Wikipedia tells us that WD40 is the trademark name of a penetrating oil and water displacing spray. This spray is manufactured by the WD40 company based in San Diego, California. But that's not the point of today's Plus One. I want to talk about the origin story for WD40. Pop quiz. Do you know how they came up with that name? Well, on the company's website they tell us, I quote again, WD40 literally stands for Water Displacement 40th Formula. That's the name straight out of the lab book used by the chemist who developed the product. Back in 1953, the chemist Norm Larsen was attempting to concoct a formula to prevent corrosion and a task which is done by displacing water. Now that's a nice way to say that our chemist friend norm Larsen failed 39 times trying to figure out how to create a solvent to prevent corrosion, but then finally figured it out on attempt number 40. And then they figured out thousands of ways to apply his new solvent to everyday challenges. I kind of like that arc dozens of failures. Oops. Figured it out. Awesome. Then figured out how to scale the new discovery to solve a ton of other challenges. Even more awesome skipping any more unpaid product promotion. Today's +1. Have you ever failed over and over and over again before finally succeeding? Of course you have. Let's celebrate that. And are you perhaps in the middle of another series of experiments to figure out how to master something? I hope so, heroic one. Let's squirt a little WD optimizing 40 on our challenges and get back to work in the laboratories of our lives as we get a little closer to a fun breakthrough origin. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.
