My Internet connection went out on Friday. I plugged and unplugged. I went a little crazy. Then I resigned myself to the fact that it would not be fixed until after the weekend.
Years ago I was on a magazine assignment and I had the honor of interviewing some very talented and accomplished people. One was Scott Jones who invented voicemail. (This is not a lofty statement like Al Gore inventing the Internet -- Scott Jones actually received several patents for this idea.)
Here's when I figured out that I will never be that smart or make a b'jillion dollars with an idea. He told me a story and I'll boil it down to this:
In college, he had a fascination with computers. (He's my age so please remember that the memory on your cell phone used to take up an entire building.)
He took out a teensy classified ad in a national magazine asking for people to send their old computers to him.
He convinced his parents to turn their basement into a laboratory.
He took them apart and put them back together until he completed the puzzle.
He jotted idea after idea. He plugged away until he understood.
During our interview he pointed to a pile of notebooks. He will not run out of ideas.
He's started several more companies and received several more patents.
Being a good student is a good idea. The smartest people I meet also combine that with asking, "What if ..?"
1 comment:
I think Scott Jones is a facinating person and that you actually met him and talked to him is facinating too. Thanks for sharing this interesting information. Patsy
Post a Comment