My "Stinky" Motivation

Here is a funny story I wanted to share about one of the core elements that continues to motivate me to create and launch my ideas...

About 4 years ago I had an idea... underwear that would absorb any gas issues one would have. Let me say this was not a personal issue, I just thought it was a good idea... that small note was for all of you who were snickering out there. So basically the underwear would absorb your stinky gas and instead of making your neighbor in the car suffer they would instead be treated to the smell of roses, a fresh breeze, Hell... anything but what it actually smelled like. So I called up my brother-in-law who is a chemical engineer and asked him how we could do it. After he laughed for a while he said he would think about it. Well, we never talked about it again.

So I was sitting in traffic in Atlanta one afternoon when low and behold I heard something I could not believe. An interview with some guys who had done what I thought up a few years before... http://www.flat-d.com/technology1.html .

I called my brother-in-law up that night and told him what I had heard... I told him right then, that this would not happen again. And again I am not sure he heard me because he was laughing still at me.

This was my one idea, albeit a stinky one, that got away and I now look at every good idea I have very closely because I DO NOT want what happened with my underwear to happen again.

I know a lot of you have similar stories of ideas you had that you did not carry through with but someone did.. if you have them, please post them as a reply to this.

These missed opportunities should motivate you to create, create, create and not just come up with an idea and sit on it or in the case of my idea, take it a step further and gas it to death.

Today was a good day

The trip of an entrepreneur is more up and down then the biggest, fastest roller coaster in world. It has the lowest lows followed by some highs that would empress Cheech and Chong. Today was a good day and helped to remind me of the value of your close network of friends, advisers, and family that you are consistently surrounded by and get all the necessary support you need. I am so thankful to have the network around me that I have. So much so that I know without a doubt that I would be nowhere near where I am with BigLeapGPS as I am now without it. I did a presentation to an entrepreneur class at Clemson several months back and I kept coming back to my network. I kept saying that everything I have and have been able to do was based on that and a student piped up and said, "How can I get in on this network?" I told him to come to InnoVenture 2008, he came, and I introduced him to my network. It is not rocket science to find the people around you that can help, it is building a relationship and trust with them before anything is asked of them that makes a great difference. To go as far as even doing something for them because any supportive network is a two way street and will never work if all you do is take and take. Give, give a lot and things come back many, many times over. Of all the investments, sales training classes, self help groups, whatever else I have invested in in the past to better myself - my network has by far been my greatest investment.

Idea creation is nothing compared to what you do with it

Everybody has ideas. As anyone, so what was or is your great idea that could change the world? What is your paper drink umbrella or your paper click or your post it note? Most everyone will have at least one idea if not many that are truly unique and would be a game changer if they had taken the idea further than just saying, "Hey, what about this?" Don't get me wrong, having great ideas are very important but what is even more important is you doing something with them or sharing your ideas with people that can do something. There is absolutely nothing wrong in sharing a concept with a mover and a shaker especially if you know yourself well enough to know you are not going to do anything about it. Please, share your game changers with someone, chances are if they move forward with anything you give them it will come back 3 fold in your favor.

The American Idol Business Method

Think about it for a second in business terms rather than music. What if you had the ability to take a list of product ideas and concepts, present them to the world and let the world tell you which ones they like best and would/will buy when they are produced.
Think about what this concept cuts out for a business. 1) research on what the customer will buy. 2) product pre-production costs based on estimates rather than exact interest figures. 3) the risk of developing a product that would not sell.
The most popular TV show in the world is nothing more than a product advertisement and they are getting paid by the viewer to tell them which products they will pay more money for. The business model for American Idol is genius. You get paid to figure out what product to produce then you get paid on the finished product.
How can we apply those same terms to business and effectively deliver a list of products, ideas, or concepts to the market at large and make the potential customer care enough to provide feed back and at the same time get excited enough about the finished product to turn around and buy it when available?

At Test - The true value of an idea - Can we make Greenville Wireless?

Submitted by: Joe Milam on Jun 21, 2008 at 8:57 pm Tagged with: idea creation, Wireless Source: BigLeapGPS

When I had coffee with John Warner in the Fall of last year to talk about my BigLeapGPS idea; we had met at Port City Java on a busy morning. I asked John to sit outside because I was, at that time, like most other idea guys... I was very careful about who I talked to and who was listening. John made a point to me about my concerns. He said if I stood in the middle of Port City Java and announced to the customers what I was doing with BigLeapGPS and how I was going to do it, no one would do anything about it. No one would steal this idea I hold so close to my heart and I guess number one point is no one will implement what it would take to start a busienss around it. I believe those comments now more than ever being reminded of the trials it takes to get a start up started.
So with all that being said, I have an idea and I want to share it with the SwampFox community and I want to see if anyone will actually construct a business case around this idea and do something with it. Here it is:

Many of you may remember that back in 2003 I installed one of the first business sponsored Wi-Fi networks in the country right here in downtown Greenville. Well after the keys to the wireless network were given to another company to run it has not run very well, if at all. I have an idea on how to get a working wireless network back up in downtown Greenville as well as provide a marketing medium for the participates in the network.

In summary, get a lot of restaurants, bars and other businesses in the downtown areas all up and down Main Street to allow you to install a small piece of software on their existing wireless access point or sell an access point for $95.00. Set all the network names to the same SSID or network identifer, something like freeGVwireless.com whatever the website address is. And have all the access points redirect anyone who logs onto them to this www.freeGVwireless.com website where all the participating businesses are highlighted.

Forget having cities spend hundreds and millions on Metro-Wi-Fi projects, build the networks organically from the centers of commerce.

The key here is to have the participating business pay very little if anything for the exposure on the website because they are helpig fuel traffic to the site. This is where you need to be creative on how to generate revenue from this model. There is your challenge SwampFox... let's see if we can figure this out. If this is NOT a good idea, please let me know that as well and let me know why.

As always, I am an e-mail away with any questions. jmilam@bigleapgps.com

Here is the link to the software:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/

Thank you and good luck!

Cranking up the wheel

It is truly hard to believe my last post was in December! I guess that is what happens when you are really trying to launch a business. So with that being said, if you see someone trying to launch a business and they have blog entries every day or so... are they really building a business?? Anyway, BigLeapGPS is still moving forward. We have two investors behind us to help get things rolling and I have found some invaluable advisers who are giving their blood and sweat into this project right there with me.

It is amazing to look back over the short time, also a year now, that I have been developing this business to see the things that have changed and the things that have remained the same. In many areas of life change is not looked at as always good. In a start up it is absolutely essential to success. Without almost constant change and business plan tests you will not get very far. You have always got to listen to the ones around you who are more experienced. These people come into your path at different times. Stay true to your goals but remember there are many ways of getting there and it is best to follow the paths well traveled.

With all that being said I feel it is important to publish the BigLeapGPS story and goals as they are today. I do hope these goals are reached in one way, shape or form down the road. The actual way we get there is yet to be determined all I know is I believe in it and the people around me. When you have that, what can stop you?