Under the Influence host Terry O'Reilly is writing a new book about the upside of making mistakes.

My Best Mistake will be published on Oct. 26, 2021.

In My Best Mistake, O'Reilly will recount how some of the biggest breakthroughs and best-loved products began with a mistake. Some mistakes lead to dramatic life changes and new opportunities — and others seem minor, almost insignificant, until they lead to a famous brand, band or work of art.

Some high-profile examples O'Reilly highlights include how a printing error results in the Incredible Hulk's iconic green colour (he was originally supposed to be grey) and how Popsicles were invented accidentally.

"My Best Mistake will change how you think about screwing up and will encourage you to accept mistakes and embrace the obstacles that may arise from these errors, leading you to unexpected breakthroughs and silver linings of your own," the publisher, HarperCollins, said in the book's description.

O'Reilly is an advertising expert, broadcaster and the author of two other books,The Age of Persuasion and This I Know. His radio shows have been broadcast on CBC Radio since 2005. He currently hosts Under the Influence. He lives near Huntsville, Ont.

You can read an excerpt from My Best Mistake below.

Back in 2004, I was working with Denny Doherty in a recording studio. He was narrating a 265-episode radio series our company had developed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Beatles landing in North America. As you may know, Denny was one of the founding members of the iconic group the Mamas and the Papas. Born in Halifax, Denny formed his first band at age 19, then left Canada in 1964 to seek fame and fortune in the folk scene in New York. As recounted in the Mamas and the Papas' hit song Creeque Alley, guitarist (and fellow Canuck) Zal Yanovsky and singer Denny would pass the hat after performing numbers in Greenwich Village. Soon, Denny met Cass Elliot, then the two of them joined up with married folk singers Michelle and John Phillips in 1965.

The rest is California dreaming.

Working with Denny was always fun because he had the best stories to tell between takes. He was part of the '60s pop, rock and folk scene and had crossed paths with everyone from Bob Dylan to my cherished Beatles. But I remember one story in particular.

He told me about John finding out he had conducted an affair with Michelle Phillips. To punish Denny before actually confronting him about it, John had him sing a new song titled I Saw Her Again. The lyrics were about sneaking around to see a woman you shouldn't be seeing. As he made Denny sing it over and over again in the studio, John just glared at Denny through the glass, waiting for him to get the message.

While recording the final vocal, Denny made a mistake. At around the 2:43 mark, he came in at the wrong beat. He sang, "I saw her," then stopped, realized his mistake, waited a second, then continued with the chorus. When he finished the take, he said, "Sorry about that mistake, you can edit it out." But both John and producer Lou Adler said, "No, we won't — we loved it," and kept it in the final mix.

That was interesting to me. It was always my favourite Mamas and Papas song and that little moment from Denny — that tiny mistake — is my favourite moment in the song. I wait for it every time I hear it. When Denny told me that story, we talked about other mistakes in popular songs that turned out to be interesting moments. Like when Sting laughs at the start of Roxanne because he tripped on a piano while he made his way to the microphone. Or the time Sun Records producer Sam Phillips was recording Time Has Made a Change with Jimmy DeBerry when the microphones picked up the shrill sound of a telephone ringing in the outer office — and Phillips left it in the record because the mistake "just felt right."

Sam Phillips chased something he called "perfect imperfection." He felt mistakes in a great thing were infinitely better than perfection in a good thing. Paul Simon once said he was more intrigued by an interesting mistake than a safe move. I'm with Sam and Simon on that one. Back when I directed commercials, I always chose the take that felt best, rarely the perfect one.

The concept of meaningful mistakes that actually made some thing better was intriguing. My mind raced through all the stories I'd collected over the years, as well as the stories I'd told on my CBC Radio show about mistakes that led to multimillion-dollar brands. I was particularly interested in finding two types of stories. First, stories where someone had made a catastrophic decision, only to discover it was the best thing that ever happened to them.

Second, stories where people had made a tiny, inadvertent mistake that was just a little left of right but that led to a breakthrough.

In the former, the people featured in this book went through an almost violent life change, losing their jobs, their companies and often their credibility — only to discover an even better life on the other shore. In the latter, the people or companies made a mistake that seemed small, almost insignificant — yet it would be the beginning of famous brands or legendary bands or groundbreaking art.

In one instance, it saved lives.

Churchill once wrote, "You never can tell whether bad luck may not after all turn out to be good luck... when you make some great mistake, it may very easily serve you better than the best-advised decision."

Sir Winston was right.

A raging forest fire often leads to beautiful green growth sprouting up through the ashes.

Adapted from My Best Mistake by Terry O'Reilly ©2021. Published by HarperCollins.