As revealed in The Best of Business, a book published by The Economist in collaboration with Pegasus Books in 2009, William Gibbs (1790-1875) became an exceptionally wealthy man by selling guano, seabird dung, that is rich in nitrates and phosphates, and harvested off the coast of South America from the middle of the 19th century and used as (what else?) fertilizer. He and his brother George signed their first contract with the Peruvian government in 1842 and in 1858 imported 300,000 tons of guano to Britain. Gibbs also built a number of churches as well as a mansion for himself at a cost of 70,000 pounds (the profits from just one year’s trade), Tyntesfield, a Victorian Gothic Revival estate near Wraxall, North Somerset, England, in the Vale of Nailsea, seven miles from Bristol. In 2002, it was acquired by the National Trust for 25 million pounds.

I read another brief account of William (“The Turd Seller”) Gibbs in SuperFreakonomics, “The Parable of the Horseshit.” (By the way, the etymology of word “shit” is “top of the soil.”) Perhaps I have not recognized, much less appreciated, the value of all of my efforts that did not produce the desired results, of all of my consulting proposals that were rejected, of all of my book reviews that were not well-received, etc.

Lacking lemons to make lemonade, Gibbs did the best he could with what was available. There must be an important business lesson in there somewhere.