I'm an Idea Man:Anypne Else?

[Seahawk]

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For some odd reason, I have always been entrepreneurial.

Before we moved to the ranch, we rented a House and stables for a year in Rolling Oaks, California on Colt Lane. The space was empty in those days. Google aerial views of TO in 1965 and you get a sense of what I mean.

We used to ride our horses to what is now Los Robles Green golf course and hunt for golf balls in the deep rough along what I think were the finishing holes...there was nothing around and we never disturbed the golfers.

We'd find maybe 15 - 20 at a time, some i perfect shape, others we trash. We would sell what we found to the pro shop and make 50 cents a ball for the "primos. $5 -10$ dollars in those days was a haul.

I owned 1/4 of a white water rafting company, small, in college. I made great money during the summers and my last two yars we ran a kayaking school for beginners on the American River. Mo' money.

My first squadron tour one of the Tech Reps showed me a shift knob on his Jeep he made with an old cyclic grip off a Huey. It was a work of art. Top Gun had come out and he and I decided to see if we could make some money off the idea. We met with a toy guy in LA and he agreed to work with us.

We made a bunch of different "Top Gun Grips" including a desk model, battery powered that made machine gun and missile noises, pictured here:



We did well.

This winter I have been riding instead of walking the dog in the late afternoons. Been chilly so I'm always wearing gloves.

I also take my iPhone with me. Sucks to keep having to take my right gloves off to manipulate the touch screen.

Then it came to me, my "feed mayonnaise and tomatoes to tuna fish": Make a flesh-like material cover for the index finger on gloves that would enable touch screen work without take off your glove.

I was sure I had a great idea until I got back in and did a detail search: There are hundreds of similar items for sale, all with great reviews.

Ouch: Years late many dollars short

I'm finishing the build for brief for a DARPA brief next week so I am practicing the art of procrastination. Team review tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Captain Ahab Jr]

I'd consider myself as an ideas guy

Sometimes I come up with the good idea but more often than not I'll use someone else's good idea

Don't care where the good ideas come from, the more good ideas I can use the better design engineer I look

[pwd72s]

I had an idea to stop people from procrastinating, but I decided to work on it next month.

[flatbutt]

Nope, I've been the talented hands that helped make ideas into reality. I've always been better in the lab than at the blackboard.

[oldE]

I don't get ideas. The wife gets ideas and I enable them.
Maybe that isn't entirely true, but most of the things I work on are the result of a conversation which started with her saying, "I was wondering...."
I am not an entrepreneur. If you have a problem, I'll see what I can do.

Best
Les

[devodave]

I had similar visions. Made and rode 36" long skateboards while everyone else was riding 24" ones, opted for a wide 10" deck while others were still riding 6" wide decks. When BMX bikes came out, wanted to put similar tires, wheels, etc on my 26" newspaper bike, as I found the 20" frames too small for my 15 year old self in 1975. Missed opportunities to capitalize on my forward thinking!

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I'd consider myself as an ideas guy

Sometimes I come up with the good idea but more often than not I'll use someone else's good idea

Don't care where the good ideas come from, the more good ideas I can use the better design engineer I look

Oh, 100%...I do the same. The "Top Gun grip" wasn't my idea I just expanded and enhanced the opportunity: We had a bicyclee grip rubber model that did well, for instance.

The DARPA proposal we are working on, we have passed the first two gates, is called "Ancillary". Here is a video of their, DARPA's idea:



Now, my partner is like you, very accomplished in design and implementation. He took one look at the video and says, "That will never work" (the airvehicle in the video).

"Three ducts, no way to over come torque roll".

I always nod.

What I have been working on is all the shipboard integration stuff, the not so hard but critical to the success of the proposal stuff. I have spent a lot of my life on the back of the small boats and finally have an opportunity to influence integration.

Done for the day.

If we get selected I'll share the design we came up with. We are teamed with a large company but our air vehicle (ok, my partners) is the lead technical problem....which is sporty to say the least!

[GH85Carrera]

Back in 1963 we moved to Maxwell, AFB in Montgomery. AL. They have a minimum security federal prison on base, and have the prisoners get "on the job training" in yard care, and golf course management. So all the yards on base were mowed on for free, even the base housing yards. For a kid that mowed yards for money, competing against free is impossible. The one task the prisoners did not do was edge the yards. So my brother and I split the cost of a 3.5 HP Sears bladed edger, and went door to door. Dad gave us a loan that we had to repay 100%. Most yards had not been edged in years, so we had a ton of business. Lots of edging to do.

Inevitably someone would ask us to edge up around the bushes. The blade could be rotated 90 degrees and trim the grass around the bushes. On occasion wack, the blade got too close to the bush, and it was cut off. Oops. We would just stuff the top of the bush into the ground and pretend it was always that way. I don't know why that bush died!

We got to thinking, and my brother thought up removing the metal blade, and looping a piece of parachute cord around the center shaft, and clamping down the large washer. With knots in the end of the cord, we just invented the Weed Eater. It worked great, and did a perfect job up under and around the bushes where the Bermuda grass would grow. It worked great against curbs were grass came up to. We used the parachute cord as much as the metal blade.

Of course we had no ideas at all of a patent, we were just teenagers trying to compete against free mowing. If only we knew about patents.

[Superman]

Shower posters.......

But seriously, I have had some ideas. That worked out well for others. Snap lids on toothpaste tubes, instead of screw lids. Stuff like that.

But no, I chose against an entrepreneurial path. No regrets on that. I probably would have made considerably more money, but I don't need the 'more money.' Time is more valuable. Cozumel last month. Italy and France in April.

But yeah.....shower posters. LOL

[masraum]

That scene from Night Shift still pops into my head from time to time. I have no idea what I'd think of that movie now, but when I was a kid, I thought Michael Keaton, Henry Winkler, and "Diane" were hilarious in it.

[john70t]

Usually I have to experience something and then a latent subliminal ego thing kicks in:"I could do that better".
A few decades ago back in automotive classes, my first thought was half the pressure of combustion was wasted on the head. Why not two pistons in opposition? A ring of spark plugs and electric valves in the center.
It seems someone else thought up that same idea a century before. And why isn't it used today? Lots of those.

The thing is, if it's an idea it will be instantly stolen. That's the thing about computer laws these days. IP theft and profiling happen daily in the name of "security". Like a ho or dresser everyone is going through those drawers. Or, if it has any potential, it will be copied 95% and sold. The remaining 5% is a matter of who can write off the most legal fees and send the judge's kid to college.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

For some odd reason, I have always been entrepreneurial.

Glad we could help you put off the review!

I've been an entrepreneurial since high school. Had a foreign car repair shop, sold it, bought a rental house. I was in college and rented the house for $100 more a month than I was paying for my apartment. I hired a real estate agent to keep it rented for me. I went to many parties there and heard about the a-hole landlord. Nobody knew he was me.
After college (it took me 6 years because I was always working on some money-making project) I worked as an engineer for GM and then as an aerospace engineer with the Air Force. I couldn't stand working for the man. Five years and I was out. It was a good job, if you like jobs. When I left my supervisor said, "I can't believe you're leaving. 15 more years and you can retire riding the gravy train."
I told him I didn't want to ride the gravy train, I wanted to own it.

Long story after that. Ups and downs, but I always had ideas.

[island911]

I am very much an idea guy. Patents and all. ..

I will point out that being an idea guy and being entrepreneurial are two very different things. Having both is super-human stuff. - Both the ability to imagine a novel solution and the ability to make a business out of it. - Impressive Seahawk.

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Oh, 100%...I do the same. The "Top Gun grip" wasn't my idea I just expanded and enhanced the opportunity: We had a bicyclee grip rubber model that did well, for instance.

The DARPA proposal we are working on, we have passed the first two gates, is called "Ancillary". Here is a video of their, DARPA's idea:



Now, my partner is like you, very accomplished in design and implementation. He took one look at the video and says, "That will never work" (the airvehicle in the video).

"Three ducts, no way to over come torque roll".

I always nod.

What I have been working on is all the shipboard integration stuff, the not so hard but critical to the success of the proposal stuff. I have spent a lot of my life on the back of the small boats and finally have an opportunity to influence integration.

Done for the day.

If we get selected I'll share the design we came up with. We are teamed with a large company but our air vehicle (ok, my partners) is the lead technical problem....which is sporty to say the least!

Paul, as always I'm impressed, that looks really interesting! Good luck with the project

I'm open to a bit of part time consultancy as 'sporty' is what I do for a rest .

Guys I'm working with at the F1 team I'm helping don't believe me when I say I'm working in F1 for a rest. Maybe I need to show them my man cave build thread

I'll PM you off this thread and try to describe in words without breaking any NDA's my last design project that was sporty enough to help win 3x F1 championships and counting

[Captain Ahab Jr]

Originally Posted by Superman

But seriously, I have had some ideas. That worked out well for others. Snap lids on toothpaste tubes, instead of screw lids. Stuff like that.

Stuff like that..... Superman wins the good ideas thread, rest of us dumb azz's can go back to Good Idea School

[cantdrv55]

My wife says I’m the visionary and she’s the implementer.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by Captain Ahab Jr

I'm open to a bit of part time consultancy as 'sporty' is what I do for a rest.

That would be excellent. If we get this one, we'll need help.

Happy to sign whatever it takes to make us all comfortable.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

For some odd reason, I have always been entrepreneurial.

Glad we could help you put off the review!

It sounds like you've had an interesting - no - amazing life. So far. You've done things that most Americans never bother to dream of. I hope some of it rubbed off on your children. The itch to be entrepreneurial is both a blessing and a curse, and it is great when it works out. Good luck on your future endeavors!

I've been entrepreneurial since high school. Had a foreign car repair shop, sold it, and bought a rental house. I was in college and rented the house for $100 more a month than I was paying for my apartment. I hired a real estate agent to keep it rented for me. I went to many parties there and heard about the a-hole landlord. Nobody knew he was me.
After college (it took me 6 years because I was always working on one money-making project or another) I worked as an engineer for GM and then as an aerospace engineer with the Air Force. I couldn't stand working for the man. Five years and I was out. It was a good job, if you like jobs. When I left my supervisor said, "I can't believe you're leaving. 15 more years and you can retire riding the gravy train."
I told him I didn't want to ride the gravy train, I wanted to own it.

Long story after that. Ups and downs, but I always had ideas.

[brp914]

I bought my current house, rented U Hauls and did my own moving. Couldn't believe how much crap I had acquired. Wrecked my back. I thought if I bought an adjustable bed that it would help. It didn't. For one thing, where's the damn remote? Secondly, the topo of the bed needs to change in several places as you switch from left to right side, or stomach to back. Third, beds aren't made for stomach sleepers. A good stomach sleeping position should be almost like a massage chair, just tilted forward some. Fourth, I'm tall, but the bed pivoted in places better suited to someone shorter.

The solution: I've seen people play games on their phones...the phone has a sensor to detect level. Whatever this sensor is, gyro or bubble, whatever...incorporate a sensor into a garment that you wear in bed. Connect sensor inputs to a computer to control hydraulics so that the bed adjusts as you move. Something like this could be used in a hospital to get bedridden to move so they don't remain in the same position too long.

Well, you won't see something like this in Motel 6, but maybe for those well off who want the best, maybe.

[A930Rocket]

My favorite line was feeding mayonnaise to the tuna fish. I love that movie.