It’s often said that we shouldn’t live life life alone. The same goes for ideas.
More often than not making ideas work is a solo thing. But, partnering up with ideas can be the real game changer and work wonders for the end results. History shows it and proves it. In fact it’s what saved one of the biggest and most famous companies on the planet.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s Lego was the go-to plaything for children. Almost all kids from that era owned some or had built with some at home or school. They were the staple play toy for children everywhere, and they were everywhere. But times changed and so did preferences. The mid 80’s saw the advent of technological toys like robots and computer games and the business seemed headed for bankruptcy after a $23m loss.
They needed help. And they got that help with an ingenious partner. The Star Wars film franchise was launching The Phantom Menace and sought to engage a younger audience in sci-fi and its brand. Further instalments of the Star Wars story were planned and a new fan base would be needed through the years. They felt creating special Lego based kits would achieve just that.
And boy did it! The revenue kept Lego afloat and led them to creating new licencing tie-ins elsewhere and the business turned around. In 2024 it made 17.1 DKK (over £2.4billion) profit and sold 12% more products than the previous year. That’s what partnering ideas can do.
And they are not alone!
Eating ice cream in a Rolls.
In 1978 two school chums who hated gym but loved ice-cream decide to take a basic $5 correspondence course on their favourite food. Enjoying it so much they decided to give it a go and set about making ice-cream through using local Vermont ingredients they also loved. They survived their first harsh winter and soon word got around. The two guys with their flavoursome ice-cream with chunky ingredients (that they threw in day to day on their own whim) such as cookies and candy, began to become popular.
Within a decade they had opened 80 shop outlets in 18 American states. These two ice-cream creating fans were Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. The world knows them as Ben & Jerry’s. When they sold the brand in 2000, the price tag was $326m. Two friends, one idea, one partnered success story.
Perhaps their ice-cream is considered a bit of a luxury. Well there’s another luxury item that we all love that never would have come about without a partnership. The Rolls Royce car.
Charles Royce was the son of a Lord and had an affluent background. He studied engineering and became an accomplished driver even breaking the world land speed record in 1903. He set up one of the first car dealerships to import cars to fund his driving escapades. The very opposite can be said of Henry Royce who was a working child from the age of nine. He managed to gain an apprenticeship with a railway company and loved all things engineering.
Royce began to build cars as he felt other designs were lacking in engineering. Rolls was also disappointed in the foreign cars he imported. Hearing of Royce a friend of Rolls invited the two to meet and in 1904 they sat down together for the first time. They hit it off. Royce agreed to make cars for his new friend who agreed to sell them exclusively through his car dealership. They both needed each other for what the other brought to the table.
We all know how that story turned out. Today Rolls Royce is worth a whopping $100.3 billion!! Not bad for two people who probably would never have done what they did without their joined union.
Who’s your other ideas half?
If you have been struggling along alone with an idea or business, then ask yourself, ‘Who can I partner up with’?
Who can be the Ben to your Jerry? The Rolls to your Royce? The Star Wars to your Lego?
Don’t look in the obvious. It could be an old friend. A person who simply seems to know what people think or like. Another business who you can meet in the middle to form something good for both of you. Or a fellow enthusiast who loves what you do but in a different way. Even someone in the bus queue. Get talking, get sharing with others, get connecting, get yourself closer to your partner in dream. You could be theirs too!
Two can become one and create one mega success. Two works wonders where one is trying to work things out.
Two heads and two ideas are better than one. And can be waaaaay bigger as well.
References – www.thisforthat.biz – ‘The partnership that saved LEGO’.
www.cbr.com – ‘How star wars saved LEGO’.
www.lego.com
www.unilver.co.uk – Ben & Jerry’s
www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com – how rolls met royce.
Do you experience good luck all time? Everything always coming up roses?
Or are you the opposite? That nothing remotely lucky ever happens to you.
It’s no surprise. Luck, actually, tends to be more of a belief that an actual blessing.
Professor Richard Wiseman, a well known TV and broadcasting psychologist, was highly interested in the whole subject of luck. In the early 1990’s he embarked on a ten year study into luck to see if people were truly lucky…..or not. He ran adverts in national papers asking for people to become involved in the study who believed they were either incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky.
From this 400 were chosen to embark on the luck factor research. His aim was to examine the actual beliefs and life story experiences of both sets of people to determine if there was any factor(s) that lay at the root of their luck/non luck. His study was in depth involving keeping diaries, completing questionnaires, and participating in experiments. This 10 year programme was the first and biggest of its kind in the world.
So, what did he find? Who exactly really does enjoy good luck?
Good Beliefs = Good Fortune.
Well, from the title of this post, you can probably work out the outcome.
His groundbreaking exercise and findings were shared in his best selling book, ‘The Luck Factor’.
His studies showed that people were as lucky as they believed themselves to be. This was underpinned by 4 key traits, namely –
- They create self-fulfilling predictions through positive expectations.
- They adopt a resilient attitude under all circumstances turning lesser luck into greater luck.
- They have become skilled at noticing and creating chance opportunities that they follow.
- They make beneficial decisions through trusting their intuition.
Putting the four together in one human led to one good turn of fortune after another. Let me share a perfect example.
Luck hangs around.
In ‘The Luck Factor’, Richard Wiseman tells the tale of Barnett Helzberg Jr who had built up a fairly successful jewellery business. He was now 60 years of age and wanted to sell the company and read the means by which famous investor Warren Buffett bought companies. He decided he was the man but didn’t know how to be able to have a conversation with him. That was still in his mind in 1994 in visiting New York when, by chance as he was walking past The Plaza Hotel, he heard a woman call out ‘Mr Buffett’.
Seeing the man she was referring to, there and then he decided to walk over to him and introduce himself. And guess what? It was indeed Warren Buffett. One year later he agreed a deal to buy all of Barnett’s stores and he retired a wealthy man.
And it works the other way round too.
Croation Frane Selak reputedly survived a train crash, plane crash, a bus crash into water, a car fire and explosion, a head on lorry smash, and being struck by a bus. Some don’t fully believe they all actually occurred they way he described but there is an interesting epilogue to the story. Selak did believe he was lucky and one story is undisputed. In 2010 in the last of his amazing life events, he won over £700,000 in the Croatian Lottery!
That’s what happens when you believe in luck. It kind of hangs around. And it darn well sticks too.
Your own story, like those above, has been your life. And has that story been a lucky one? If not then it’s probably that you didn’t think and believe in all things lucky being a lifelong counterpart with you to the end. You can change that today.
Because good luck is in your head before it’s in your life.
References – Richardwiseman.com/resources/The_Luck_Factor.pdf
Wikipedia – Frano Selak.
Many people have a good idea.
Every single day the world over someone thinks up a good idea for a product, service, device, or system.
But that’s also where most ideas stop. Or stop very soon after. Their concept looked plausible on paper or in their mind, but in the real world it didn’t quite work or fit or meet the need it was designed for. And right there and then it died a death never to see the light of day.
That is the last thing anyone should do. A good idea is a good idea, it just may not have been the right time or found it’s rightful home.
Not Milking Success.
In the early 1970’s in the UK, the Milk Marketing Board, an agency set up to manage milk production and distribution four decades before, planned an ad campaign to promote milk drinking as a cost effective health booster for the population during a time of soaring inflation and cuts.
The ad agency WCRS was contracted to create ideas for the promotions. After some research they felt the focus should be on the working male population with ads showing men in various roles who had drunk milk first. Their tag line was, ‘I bet he drinks milk’. The Milk Marketing Board however didn’t take the idea forwards, as other preferred concepts were explored.
Now that wasn’t the end of that. WCRS liked the strap line so kept it on hold for a possible future use.
Roll on a decade. WCRS were approached by Carling Breweries to help increase the market share of their Black Label lager. They wanted it to have a more ‘cool’ and appealing look. An easily remembered slogan that would hook in interest was needed. And guess who already had that?
A range of adverts were launched in 1983 with two men watching another man doing something impressive or skilful before adding, ‘I bet he drinks Carling Black Label’. The connection from drinking Carling to being a hip, popular guy was made. Gone was milk and in was Carling.
The result? Within 18 months it was the UK’s best selling draught beer and would remain so for the next two decades.
That’s what happens when you hold onto an idea.
That’s a wrap.
The best ideas not only might have to wait for success, they also need using elsewhere.
In 1957 Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes tried to create a textured wallpaper for the new young music generation and the interior fashions they were buying. Sealing shower curtains through heat disappointed them as it only resulted in a see through film with trapped bubbles in. In fact they ended up with several patents for their idea and thought of hundreds of uses for it, but none worked.
Three years later with a product seemingly of little value, they decided to offer it for packaging for various industries as the bubbles within would at least prevent friction and damage. The product took off as its first major buyer was IBM who used it to protect their new computers when they were shipped. Bubble Wrap as we know it was born. At the turn of this century it had sales of over £3 billion per year.
You have to wonder what could have also happened to all the myriad of ideas that were left on the shelf because they didn’t come up to scratch at first.
So, take a look at your own ideas you ‘put away for another day’ or in a drawer gathering dust.
They may not be a dud but a dynamo waiting to go.
And don’t forget yourself – the idea you’ve always had about who you are may only need sharpening up so that the world responds to it. Why?
Because the best ideas are best kept as one day they may be the best for your life and future.
References – ‘Smithsonian.com/innovation/accidental-invention-bubble-wrap’.
Channel 5 – ‘Britain’s Favourite Ads of the 70’s and 80’s’.
Five thoughts, ideas, insights, or quotes to power up your mind to think differently and creatively about life and who we are. Put all previous thinking away and open up a brand new world of the Supermind. YOUR SuperMind.
This week – Immigration.
Immigration is how countries improve their society through skills and abilities that new arrivals bring. But in recent times immigration has become a hot potato the world over. It’s now seen as a dirty word and a political challenge to manage. It’s a key issue to everyday people and so this week we are going to put our SuperMind Saturday hats on to what can be done.
- Modern immigration reflects greater economic need by immigrants. Seeking a better life many take extreme risks to better their lives in search of a more secure financial future. This has led to wealthier nations inundated by would be settlers. The world then has become a money driven planet of which this reflects it. How can we stop making everything about money?
- That desire for greater and greater financial strength led to European borders being opened in ways never previously seen in history. This started the great immigration flood that continues to this day. Immigration spread far and wide and has caused increased crime and unrest in many nations. It’s too late to go back, so how can we go forwards? How do countries know who to permit entry to?
- The big question is coming – one we have not ever been able to properly and fairly answer. When is a country full and who or what decides this? Can this be measured in a fair and reasonable statistic?
- Observation – the public image of immigrants is poor. That is all down to the media. They only feature stories of illegal immigration and negative stories and information. It is like propaganda. People can’t get a balanced view on the subject until there are as many stories to see and read of immigrants who have made huge contributions to their communities. The media are negatively magnifying everything too much.
- I’m going to come at the last question from a different angle. Immigration, immigrants. Two words that conjure up the wrong meaning in the public’s minds. We know changing words can change our whole opinion and approach to something. What word or phrase then could be used instead of these to alter our viewpoint in a more humane way? One that removes all the current anger, fear, hate, and misunderstanding?
I feel there are so many other points I could raise for your mind to consider on this. But, it’s 5 only so that’s another SuperMind Saturday for your mind powers wrapped up. Thank you for being here for the SuperMind time. Keep asking yourself these through the week to open up more of your mind to evolve its potential. Consider more, generate ideas more, think on bigger possibilities more, activate your connection to your personal higher mind more and more. Employ your SuperMInd and Super Think!
See you next time for more super thinking.
Do you look for opportunity?
Is your mind open and ready for it to appear?
If you do, one day something is going to turn up, and you will see great success staring you right in the face. Even if it looks anything but to most other people!
In fact one iconic sports stadium would probably not have existed today if one man didn’t possess such a mindset approach.
Wembley Stadium is the home of the English international football team. It is also the location of the big domestic finals as well as European football cup finals and even the Olympic Games. It is known the world over by football and non football fans alike. But, if it wasn’t for one man’s decision to grab an opportunity, it wouldn’t be there at all.
After WW1 London hosted a British Empire Exhibition. The site included buildings, kiosks, and a new stadium. Arthur Elvin owned a number of the kiosks where he sold tobacco and newspapers to the public. Once the exhibition was over the organisers planned to sell off the buildings or knock them down to clear the ground. This would have included the stadium as it had no clear or real use in the mid 1920’s bar one yearly football match.
Elvin thought otherwise and grasped the opportunity. He set himself up as a demolitions expert to win the contracts to tear most buildings down. But, chiefly this escapade was because he thought the stadium had enormous potential. In 1927 he borrowed money from an investor to buy the stadium for him (worth over £6m in today’s money) but the man killed himself soon after due to his own business debts.
Elvin was undaunted. He persuaded the man’s creditors to allow him to set up a company to buy the stadium which he would manage. He would end up running the company and Wembley for 30 years and retired a very wealthy man by adding greyhound racing and speedway which were held on various days of the week.
History will state he had a vision and took the chance.
But one other world renown business mogul only did the same once others helped him see it.
I (phone) wasn’t convinced.
Could you guess who this mega corporate legend was?
If you said Steve Jobs, you would be right.
Now most people believe that he conceived the whole I-phone himself. It’s the usual myth that never gets checked if true.
Legend has this one wrong because Jobs was adamantly opposed to turning his I-pod creation into a mobile phone. His response was, ‘This is the dumbest idea I have ever heard’. Amazing, huh? He loathed cell phone companies due to their poor signals and bad software and didn’t want his growing computer business to be associated with that market.
His engineers were convinced otherwise and set about convincing him too. They persuaded him (over many months) that as you were putting your I-pod in a pocket, why not add a phone too but with a clever design. Jobs now saw something in this first (who doesn’t like a first?) and gave them the go ahead. Four years later 50% of Apple’s income came from that very I-phone suggestion.
Even though he initially didn’t accept a phone was necessary, he did see the kudos of creating something that held huge potential by combining two popular mediums – music and talk. The power had shifted. The engineers saw that opportunity too, and that’s what great people and/or teams have the ability to do. To see something that just comes out of nowhere as the key to the success they were looking for. To take it to the next level from today and beyond.
Look out for the level.
The big takeaway here is being open and curious about going to the next level. Most people are happy to remain on the one they are on. Someone, somewhere, somehow, has to leap up to that untapped level and encourage others to join them. Like Steve Jobs who has sold over 2.3 billion I-phones to the public who didn’t even know they needed one since it’s launch. Or Albert Elvin who bought something to turn it into something else it wasn’t being used for.
Those that seek and welcome opportunity, see it turn up in their lives at some point. Turn up in mega style. And turn up because they wanted it to. That’s the mindset you need. An opportunity ready mind. A field of dreams type view.
Mindset itself is the opportunity in waiting.
It’s just got to be waiting for that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity one day.
And then pounce on it for all you are worth!
References – ‘The Man Who Saved Wembley’, BBC Sport – football – articles.
Steve Jobs – ‘Think Again’, by Adam Grant.
We are often told to make a noticeable first impression as a way to achieve in life.
Or that a first impression lasts long in the memory and so it should always be a priority.
Even though it usually does, the truth is that a first impression is also often wrong. It’s too quick a snapshot and rarely provides the true picture. Something that a famous advert still talked about today captured superbly.
It’s 1986 and The Guardian newspaper in the UK wanted to cement its position as a paper that looked at every angle of the news unlike other publications. It also wanted to show that in striking style and commissioned an advert that highlighted the typical stereotypical entrenched viewpoints that filled society at the time. Their chosen representative of this was….the skinhead. The much maligned young person constantly tarred with a crime and violence and racism tag.
The TV advert began with one on a street corner seemingly running away from a group of youths following close behind in a car. The voiceover declared that an event seen from one point of view gives one impression. The angle changes to watch the skinhead sprinting towards a well dressed businessman carrying a briefcase accompanied by the voiceover saying, ‘Seen from another point of view it gives a quite different impression’ as the businessman turns expecting to be mugged. As viewers we all expected the same.
But then came the genius. And the truth.
Long held can be wrong held.
The voiceover now states, ‘But only when you see the full picture can you fully understand what’s going on‘. The picture angle is now different, from up above slightly as you see a pile of bricks being hauled up for a building site beginning to topple right above the businessman’s head. The skinhead was running not to escape or attack anyone, but to save the man’s life.
The ad ended in silence. The Guardian had made their point. A point not just to boost their circulation, but to make us all think in a way that had never been done before. As viewers we had all watched with a set first impression. One that was abjectly and factually wrong.
Our first impressions were based upon our long held beliefs. They are also loaded with bias from those beliefs and the influence of society and people close to us. And the trouble is we are too ready to hold onto them rather than being open minded at what we see or read.
Which leads to perhaps the most famous first impression error in history.
Not everyone is the same.
In the 1960’s Decca Records were one of the leading record labels in the UK and music. They signed such bands as The Rolling Stones and Amen Corner to their label and the held some 23% of the whole market in records sales. Decca was every group and signer’s dream to sign with.
That is what brought a small group of young British lads to their studios in January 1962 for their audition or commercial test as it was called. They had become a bit of a hit on the club scene and so word got out. They soon got to work and belted out fifteen songs to show their ability rather than the usual two or three numbers. The session was recorded and sent to the top brass. The young band members felt confident.
Decca management felt otherwise having heard the tape. Fairly quickly they rejected signing the band because ‘guitar groups are on the way out’ and they ‘have no future in show business’. Most other young hopefuls would have been dejected, not these fellas. They kept at it and were signed by EMI the same year…..playing the same music Decca said was very yesterday. The only yesterday would be a famous song of the same name they wrote and sang. That group were The Beatles!!
Decca fell for the blanket approach. They chose a first impression based on a general opinion rather than seeing and listening to what was in front of them. They failed to go beyond that initial reaction and wait or think a while. Their eyes and ears only supported the already decided bias i.e. guitar groups will no longer sell records. They never got past that impression. The Beatles were doomed before they started with Decca as a result.
Truth is we are all often Decca Records or viewers of an ad featuring a skinhead. We still do it today. Our first impressions are often wrong. They are too fixed and too quick to announce themselves.
So next time you see anything or anyone for the first time, don’t decide for the first time. Look for the back story. Wait to see what unfolds. Watch what really might be going on. Then you may well be rarely wrong.
Because the best impression you can ever make is not deciding about a first one!
References – Guardian advert – various. See You Tube – ‘The Guardian Points of View advert’.
The Beatles – see Wikipedia ‘The Beatles Decca Audition’.
