I had invented a product that would absolutely keep peoples televisions, microwaves, and stereo components from being stolen and resold, no one wanted it? I could not believe what I was reading whenever a new piece of mail came with a no interest reply! How could a company not want something that would make life better, and stolen electronics worthless?

So I thought, well this idea will make peoples homes safer because it will reduce home robberies. Insurance companies will get excited about this idea, because they want safety in the world, so I started writing them. They were not falling over themselves in eagerness to buy up my idea so their clients could have a better, safer life! What gives, this is a great idea, people will be safer, and millions of dollars in claims won’t have to be paid out? I was at a loss to understand this dilemma. More importantly, where were my [now] million dollars, from this great idea?

Finally it dawned on me. If my idea stopped theft of home electronics products such as televisions, microwaves, computers, and stereos, the manufacturing of these products would slow down because there would be far less demand for replacements. Manufacturing companies were in business to make more of their product, not less.

Insurance companies were in business to make money from burglary and theft, not actually prevent it. With less theft there would be less need for insurance. Insurance company profits would drop.

The crime rate would drop due to less theft, so police departments, jails, and prisons would not need as many people working. A big portion of the regular, and underground economy would dry up because in a few years there would be no person, or place to sell non working stolen electronics items to. No one would be needed to track down burglars, and thieves. A whole sector of the economy would be put out of work.

What a stupid idea I had! What was wrong with me thinking that making the world a safer place, and preventing theft would be a benefit to society? Here I was one person trying to destroy an economy that took centuries to perfect! Thousands, if not tens of thousands of people would be without work, and income. No wonder no one was interested in my idea. I was suggesting they all commit fiscal suicide by building something that rarely needed replacement. Only replacement for worthwhile upgrades, and innovation.

There is a lesson here, just not a good one. Perhaps I can build a better mouse trap, it just better not be made so well, all the mice are caught! If I have another great idea, I am going to make sure it is packed with glitz and glamour, but does little for the consumer except part them from their money. It will be a huge success in the stores across the country, maybe even the world! I just need to think of it.

Ever think you have that big idea? The one that is going to make you rich to the point you will be ashamed to tell people how wealthy you are? So much money you will become bored traveling all the time? I thought I had one of those ideas once. It popped into my head out to the blue, like most ideas do, good or not. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became. After a few days, it was getting hard to go sleep at night thinking about the simplicity, and profit potential of my idea. I could not believe someone had not thought of this before. I was going to be rich!

I set to work, finding out how ideas are put on paper, what format was needed, and how much detail I needed to go into. It was a cheap to make, simple idea, so I knocked out about eight typed pages, with a page or two of drawings supporting my idea. Every time I retyped out my paper I would be thinking about how rich I was going to be. This was so much fun! Every day the money I was going to make grew by another thousand dollars.

Finally it was complete. Now the only question was what mega company was I going to share my idea with? Which company was big enough to make it work, able to corner the market before the knock off products started showing up? That decision took the better part of a week. Then I found out I had to create a non interest letter for the company I was going to send my idea to. The way I understood it, it was a letter that generally states that I have an idea, but I am not really interested in it. I think your company might not be interested in it enough for you to request that I send you what I have on paper. Then your not interested design and production staff may evaluate my idea before you decide you may be interested enough to pay me some money for my idea. So far so good? Yep? Okay, off to the bidding wars.

So I sent off my idea to a multinational corporation. Then I sat back and waited. A week went by, then two, three, four weeks, and nothing! On the sixth week, I received a reply from the company addressed to occupant or something else pulled out of the dictionary of non-interest.

Wow, this is going to be good, they are really interested! Dollar signs are rolling through my head by now. Well, they made it clear that they really weren’t interested, and did not appreciate my suggesting they were interested. The second sentence of the letter stated they very annoyed that I contacted them to start with. A third sentence did not exist.

Well, what do I know, they are probably too big of a company to start with. I tried more companies, and they weren’t interested either. All the companies I wrote were only interested in selling more of their products, not taking on new products that would take major manufacturing changes to produce.

Part two tomorrow….