How I Made my Millions

Watching TV this week, I came across a show on CNBC called "How I Made my Millions." The show was about ordinary people with extraordinary ideas. Of the handful of people in the show, their products ranged from shredders big enough to destroy cars to a razor blade shaped to fit in your hand, making it easier to shave your head. Two more common products were the two brothers who came up with the "life is good" brand and the farmer who made the first corn maze.

Anyone who watches that show, including me, can't help but walk away from it thinking what simple thing can I invent to make my millions? I'm sure one goal of the writers is to encourage people to follow their dreams and ideas; which is a great thing.

However, after watching the show I came to one conclusion. In most cases, I don't think it was the product that earned these guys their millions. Instead, it was their pursuit of their ideas. For example, the 'HeadBlade' or the razor specifically designed to shave your head. Todd Greene, the inventor, started his quest by trying to sell his product to big name companies in the razor industry. None of them had any interest in buying the HeadBlade. It would have been easy for him to be discouraged and give up on his product. On the contrary, he changed his game plan and marketed the product on his own. He set up a website and sold HeadBlades to the retail stores themselves. This is a perfect example of using marketing to sell the product. When it didn't sell itself, he put some effort into marketing it and convinced people that it was a quality product. As a result of his marketing efforts, the product has gained popularity and he has made millions of it.

The vast majority of the stories told on the show had similar circumstances. I think this goes to show the power of marketing. People can be convinced of the quality of a product or idea whether it sells itself or not. I take this as encouragement and I am on a quest to come up with an idea or product that I can pursue. I think people come up with ideas all the time that they just figure has already been invented or isn't good enough to make it big. It does not take a genius idea to succeed. I hope to follow Todd Greene's lead and pursue my own dream to make a living. I encourage you to do the same.

-Ned