Some ideas do not turn out the way they were originally conceived

Not every idea works exactly how you originally conceive it. If someone had all the answers, he or she would be the only entrepreneur in the world, but even Donald Trump and Bill Gates have competition. Here is an example of an idea that didn't work exactly as intended, but is working out splendidly for us now.

Several years ago we were asked by a catering company to come up with a word of mouth program that would work for them. They suggested that their problem was the long time lapse between someone attending an event they had catered and that person's need for a caterer. “How,” we were asked, “do you keep a name and a memory of what had been experienced before people for six months to a year?”

We realized that giving away business cards was fruitless; they got dropped in a draw to be lost. Brochures are nice, but they tend to be comfort documents—reinforcing a decision rather than a decision—forcing document. Letters are good, but few people are organized enough to file them properly and often forget to refer to them.

Creating a book as a method of advertising a business

Rather than utilize one of these more traditional techniques, we suggested that the client create a book that could be used by the prospective client to plan his next function. We argued that no one in Western society throws a book away; since the 16th Century, they have been symbols of knowledge, interests, erudition, and wealth. Because of this, books are displayed, not tossed in a drawer, stuffed in a file, or buried in a pile of papers. In fact, books are so important to our status that every home has multiple special places to store and show them. You have a bookcase; you do not have a pamphlet place, a brochure bin, or a card catcher.

We said that if the caterer could create a useful book with a colorful cover, and spine imprint, it would not only go where people would remember it, it could be easily and quickly located when needed. We had in mind creating a planning tool. We had learned that while planning is an expected function of government agencies, military units, and business enterprises; private citizens are not trained in planning and hardly ever do any serious planning on their own.

We determined to create a simple tool they could use to begin organizing their thinking about any function that would involve a caterer. When they were ready to move forward, they would be better prepared to describe what they wanted and the caterer could save a lot of time.

We created a nifty prototype, but the caterer said he had enough business. Because we thought the product was a very good example of how you stimulate people into talking about your products services, events, and ideas, we decided to publish the book ourselves—just a few hundred to use as samples to show prospective clients as a word of mouth sample. But it was a book, after all, so we offered it with our other titles on Amazon.com. To our utter amazement, it began to sell and we kept reordering copies from the printer.

It is now our biggest seller in its seventh edition and there are eight other planning kits with four more on the way. So something that we intended to market wholesale to firms involved in event management and planning to give to the public evolved into our biggest retail product. Now that is humbling, but humble is also a condition that every entrepreneur must learn—no matter how smart, or clever, or creative he believes himself to be, he is not omniscient. Sometimes, he needs to just go with the flow.

I have had time today to highlight just a few of the concepts in our book and some not yet there: The idea for a TV program devoted to the contributions of those who pass away, a way to make radio advertising more effective, an idea for a progresspaper instead of a newspaper, a way to simplify taxes, to make candidates more responsive, a better way to organize juries, the need to create a free university, and a better way to plan.

Overcoming bureaucratic nonsense with persistence

Let me leave you with a tale of persistence—the one trait necessary to bring any idea to fruition. It revolves around my application to renew my commission as a Notary Public.

I attended a refresher course last May and I took the examination in June. I passed and submitted the paperwork to have the commission issued. It came back. It said that I had not indicated on the form whether I was a U.S. citizen or not. I wrote back saying I was sorry, I had marked a check where an "X" was required, but forgot to insert the actual "X" in the box after the white-out had dried. But since they had two other forms from me in their records and each stated I was a US citizen and since US citizenship is not a requirement for appointment as a California Notary, it seemed a technical matter not worthy of much concern. Wrong!

They wrote back. They said that since my corrected application came in after July 1, 2005, I would be required under a new State law to take a refresher course on Notary procedures before my Commission could be issued. Wrong, I wrote back. I had already taken that course from the National Notary Association in May. Wrong, they said in a further letter. I had taken the course four days BEFORE the Secretary of State had accredited the course.

Take it again! Ridiculous, I responded. Why pay $185 to take the same course a second time since I had already passed the examination and wouldn't have to take it again after retaking the course. Tough, the Notarial authorities said. You may be renewed when you conform to our procedures and not before. The thunder from on autocratic high could not be clearer.

After failing twice to get my letters of appeal before the Secretary of State—they kept ending up on the same desk of the same unnamed bureaucrat in the Notarial section who kept denying my appeals—I decided to go political. I sought two people who knew the Secretary of State personally and who could put my problem in front of him. They did. That worked! My political contacts received a letter from the Secretary of State, not the bureaucrat I was dealing with, that said that in light of the circumstances of my experience, he would grant an exception. I had won. I am again a Notary Public.

It reminds me of the frog caught in the beak of a pelican. The frogs hands are grasping the neck of the pelican and squeezing as hard as it can. The legend on the drawing says: "Never give up." My sentiments about any IDEA OR INSIGHT. They aren't wrong or bad, just not presented at the right time in the right forum to the right people. Get the timing right and you have the next big thing.

This is the end of the presentation by Godfrey Harris. You may go to the Index of Parts again to review any section that you would like see.