When I say dumb idea, I mean a dumb idea that makes a million dollars. I think most of the ideas that have made the most money came from morons with a keen flash one night about how to make their own life just a little more convenient. They ended up influencing the world.
I got this epiphany while drinking from a 2-quart bottle of V8. I'll get to that.
On the weekends, I find myself drinking early, sleeping early, waking up early. I'm up at 3 a.m. and looking at these commercials that go on for an hour. Some guy invented some rotisserie cooker that also gets the mail. A box the size of a loaf of a bread that files your nails, does your taxes, dances to James Brown, and predicts the expiration date of milk. Sometimes it's just a pan that can also be a pot. Yeah it's cool, but no one gives a crap. They already have a pan, and they already have a pot. There's no need to spend 120 dollars on something that can be both when they spent 20 bucks to already have both and can use them at the same time. These guys go broke and die buying air time to advertise inventions that we just couldn't really give a shit about. Then some guy invents the pet rock.
This guy picked up a garden rock and said, "I think I'll put this into a box and sell it." Then his friend said, "It's a rock, they're everywhere." Then the guy says, "What if we told people to name it?" A million dollars is born.
Enter stage left, the glass of V8. I took a huge swig of it, and I love the taste of V8. Somehow though, I stopped and looked at the contents of my glass in a different light. The concept was so simple... so stupid. Campbell's Co. just went and took some vegetables and put them in a blender and served it in a cold glass. "Look! It tastes good! It's good for you! No matter how much you drink, it's only BETTER for you!" All they did was put 8 freaking vegetables in a blender! Anyone could have done it! Did we really need to wait for a company that had been sticking vegetables in pots for 50 years to figure it out?
A guy folds a wire until it can hold a coat. Did he have any idea that he would revolutionize closets?
I wish I could come up with something like this. Everything we have today and take for granted was once considered impossible. Do you know what that means? That means there's a theoretically infinite untapped resource of invention out there. We just can't see it because right now... it's unthinkable. Sometimes, even hindsight is not an ally. Would you EVER have thought that the guy who did the pet rock would have a gold toilet?
We have a saying here among the military. A stupid idea that works is not a stupid idea. That's what I'm looking for. A stupid idea that works. You should, too.
