Here they are! Easy solutions to complex problems

I love simple, easy solutions to complicated, difficult problems. The simpler, the better! For example, would you like to be very wealthy? Do you want to get rich, big time? Many people do, and they waste valuable time and energy worrying about how to solve the problem of obtaining great wealth. That's a shame, because the solution is really very simple. 

In order to get rich, just meet and introduce yourself to two new people every day. Share a bit of information about yourself and what you do, and if it seems appropriate exchange contact information.

But don't force anything. Most of the time there won't be a future with the person you meet -- especially since it doesn't matter who that person is. Don't "cherry pick" your daily two people. Don't limit yourself to people whom you believe can do something for you. It's a numbers game, and tomorrow is another day. 

I could say more about this wealth-building technique, but that would undermine its simplicity, wouldn't it?  So just go out there and get started. 
I'll see you at the bank. 

One of my favorite sources for easy answers to complicated problems is the website of Entrepreneur Magazine -- www.entrepreneur.com. I heartily recommend that site for practical panaceas for perplexing problems. 

For example, do you want to turn six dollars into a hundred thousand dollars? It's easier than you think.....
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252107

Would you like to turn your deepest fears into moneymaking opportunities? Very well then......
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252739

Do you want to feel confident in situations where you really have no idea what you're doing? Of course you would.....
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252707

It may seem like I'm being somewhat sarcastic here, but I really do love this material. Maybe the idea of easy solutions to complicated problems is a beautiful dream -- or maybe it's more than a dream. As a great poet once wrote, "Do I wake or sleep?"

Gardenburger: A cautionary tale

Last week I did a post about Phil Knight and the immense societal impact wrought by his transformation of the "gym shoe" into the "running shoe." The Gardenburger was the first mass marketed meatless hamburger, and its influence has been almost as profound as Nike's. But the outcome for Gardenburger and its creator, unfortunately, have been less fortunate. 

In the early 1980's a man named Paul Wenner owned a small natural foods restaurant in Oregon. Wenner was a genius of a special kind. He wasn't scientific. He was intuitive. Like Thomas Edison, he followed his instincts and experimented until he got the desired result. 

Wenner wanted to serve a meatless, hamburger-like patty in his restaurant. He put together some ingredients and came up with a burger that had the look and texture of a hamburger, and even a surprisingly similar taste. Equally important, the new product didn't crumble and fall apart like earlier soy burgers or other misguided attempts.

Wenner called his creation the Gardenburger. When the Gardenburger was an immediate hit in his restaurant, he began shopping it around to other places. It took off. It started to become a phenomenon. A major investor got involved, and Gardenburger became a major success story. In just a few years it was a $100 million company. 

Gardenburger was the first so-called natural food product to be featured in major supermarket chains. Just as Steve Jobs made the personal computer a mainstream consumer product, Paul Wenner's Gardenburger moved from  "health food" stores to big time retail outlets. Literally millions of them were sold in supermarkets and restaurants.

The floodgates were opened. More and more shelf space was devoted to natural foods. "Organic" became part of American's everyday language. So did "vegan." A new mainstream category came into being. There would be no Whole Foods were it not for Gardenburger. 

Of course, success brings competition. As Gardenburger grew, major food companies came up with their own meatless burgers -- and their marketing budgets were unlimited. Consumers, it turned out, were not especially interested in buying Gardenburger specifically. They just wanted meatless hamburgers, and if Kellogg was now making one, they were down for that. Why not?

Eventually Kellogg bought Gardenburger, and at a rock bottom price. 

Gardenburger and  its inventor were a classic example of creative inspiration that could not sustain itself in the mundane (and cutthroat) commercial world. It's hard to be both a visionary and a businessman, and even Edison made some huge mistakes. Paul Wenner deserves recognition for lighting a match that turned into a firestorm, even if his invention was consumed by the flames. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardenburger

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/9730624/#.Vju4wrerTIU

Phil Knight of Nike: Greater than Jobs imho!

I recall many years ago reading an interview with Steve Jobs in Playboy magazine. With stunning simplicity, Jobs articulated one of the basic concepts of his work. Computers should no longer look like a tangle of components from Radio Shack.  A computer to be a beautiful object.

Brilliant. Simple, and brilliant. Yet years before that interview, Phil Knight had already created an equally innovative, equally unlikely, and equally brilliant innovation. Just as Steve Jobs was determined to make computers beautiful, Knight did the same thing with what used to be called "gym shoes."

 Gym shoes were, first and foremost, smelly. They were black or white. They had flat, rubber soles that were all right on a basket ball court, but the average person couldn't run very far in them with any degree of comfort. There were also track shoes, of course, but those were for specialized athletes. Many of them had spikes on the soles, and they weren't especially durable. 

Without going into the details, Phil Knight reconfigured the humble gym shoe in several stunningly original ways. First and foremost, as Steve Jobs did with personal computers, he made them aesthetically attractive -- and to women as well as men! Secondly, on a practical level, he used a breakthrough idea of his partner Bill Bowerman to create a sole for his shoes that made long distance running possible and even comfortable for everyone. Third, Knight made Asia an integral part of his business plan, as both a manufacturing resource and a vast consumer market. 

There's much more to know about Phil Knight and Nike, so I urge you to explore the links below. It's my belief that, without Nike, there would be no New York Marathon, no Whole Foods stores, no "sports medicine" as a clinical specialty, and Michael Jordan's net worth would be much, much lower. And perhaps Steve Jobs' iPod would not have been especially big either. The next time you're out for a jog, notice what people have in their ears, and how that connects to what they have on their feet. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/07/how-nike-turned-sneakers-into-fashion/397610/

http://www.businessinsider.com/nike-founder-phil-knight-profile-2015-8

https://hbr.org/1992/07/high-performance-marketing-an-interview-with-nikes-phil-knight