He stumbled upon a clear goo that oil drillers kept rubbing on their hands and asked for a sample. Instead, they gave buckets for free where he went home and created one of the most widely used products in the world. 140 years later, Vaseline is still available on store shelves and being used in more ways than one.

I was born on January 9, 1837, to American parents in London, England where shortly after having me , they moved back to the U.S. and settled in New York City . My parents did all they could for me and I never had any formal education of any kind but that never stopped me from becoming a selftaught chemist . I got my first job clarifying kerosene from whale oil where all the knowledge and skills were taught onthejob . During those days, kerosene was the only fuel source keeping homes and streets lit at night . For a few years, things went well and I thought I had a safe and secure future but then I hit rock bottom because of a new and cheaper alternative; petroleum fuel .

Competition was strong and I struggled to put food on the table as I slowly watched person after person getting fired from the company . It didn't take long until I was laid off and no one hired me because my job was seen as obsolete . In the blink of an eye, I had nothing and I was nothing. I knew that if I didn't innovate or try something new, I would become obsolete . Instead of trying to fight the petroleum industry, I decided to join them by visiting the oil fields to see for myself . So, in 1859, at 22 years old I made the difficult decision to leave what was my home and used my life's savings to buy a train ticket to Titusville, Pennsylvania.

When I got there, everyone cared about the same thing; oil . They wanted to make a quick buck and jumped on the bandwagon confident that they would all make it big . But I had other plans, I wanted to hear from the everyday worker and randomly took a tour and began speaking with the people no one cared about, the drillers, and asked them questions about their job hoping that would lead to something more . When I was done, I reached in to shake their hand to say goodbye and I immediately noticed how incredibly soft and smooth their hands were . It didn't make sense to me because he was an outdoor driller working outside with his bare hands .

Just when I was going to ask him, I noticed another driller rubbing his hands and arms with a black goo coming from the drill rods . When I asked what it was, they called it "rod wax" and that it was a useless biproduct that came from the crude oil that would stick as they drilled down . When I asked why they rubbed it on their hands, they said it helped heal cuts so they would occasionally grab some and rub it in . I knew instantly that this was what I really came for and I immediately asked if I could have samples . They did better and gave me buckets for free telling me it was worthless anyway as the laughed me off .

As soon as I returned home, I began experimenting and trying to figure out its chemical properties and if it really was some magic healer . Everyone called me a fool for turning down actual oil and wasting my time on something oil companies gave away for free . To them, I was just some poor uneducated chemist chasing after an imaginary product that would never work . There were times when I questioned if any of this was even worth it and that maybe they were right. But I'd look down at my buckets of foolish rod wax and remembered that I had a goal . So, I ignored them and decided to pursue my passion. I poured every minute of my life into what I believed in and after 10 years of experimenting and perfecting my product, I finally did it .

I triple purified the black rod wax into a clear, odorless and smooth jelly and learned that it actually didn't have any healing properties . Instead, it acted more like a protective barrier lowering the risk of infection . While doctors were still using gauze, I had discovered a new type of 'bandaid' that protected people from infections where even a simple cut killed people . I told pharmacies and begged doctors to use it, to help fight infections and heal skin, but every store I went to said the same thing, "no" and it was because I was 'uneducated' in their eyes . They turned me down and accused me of lying; being a fraud; a cheat ! I felt like my chance at ever making it had been wasted on hundreds of jars filled with jelly with no one using it because they didn't believe it worked . And then it hit me. What if I hurt myself and showed them it really did ?

Just because he's already done it, it doesn't mean you can't. #GetHustling

This is Robert Augustus Chesebrough's