Don’t just ask for help, ask the right person

My friend Simon Dobbin, a film art director, had two weeks to turn an Olympic-sized swimming pool yellow for a key movie scene.

He tried food dye, but the colour vanished in chlorinated water. It only worked in drinking water. He was stuck.

So he asked himself who might know or could point him in the right direction. He knew the chlorine chemicals had something to do with the problem.

So he called a chemical engineer at 3M who led him to Elsa—an 85-year-old chlorine expert living in Hamburg, Germany.

She gave him the solution: add enough apple juice to neutralise the effects of chlorine, and the colour would hold. And it worked.

When you’re stuck finding a solution to a challenging problem, ask this first:

👉 “Who would know this better than anyone—or know someone who would?”

Not who’s convenient. Not who’s available. Who’s best based on the situation.

Then call them.