One Bold Move

I heard an interesting story of entrepreneurship a couple of days ago. Angie and her husband, two teachers, wanted to start a business to earn extra money for their children’s college education. The idea of making kettle corn caught their attention, and Angie's husband searched for three days before finding just the right equipment at just the right price. They bought the equipment and began experimenting with their recipe.

Once they had the recipe to their liking, they attended local events and sold their freshly-made kettle corn. After doing this for a couple of years, they had a wild and crazy idea: Take samples of their kettle corn to the Viking's training camp. They stuffed 120 bags of freshly-stirred kettle corn and dropped them off for the Vikings. As the players and staff consumed the kettle corn, many exclaimed, "What is this stuff? This is really good."

The next day, Angie and her husband received a call from the Viking's front office, inviting them to serve Angie's Kettle Corn at all Vikings home games, which they have been doing ever since. That opportunity grew their business substantially. In addition, the presence of Angie's Kettle Corn at Vikings games prompted interest from area grocers, Cosco, and Target.

Angie and her husband's one bold move of taking samples of their kettle corn to the Vikings launched their business from a small operation to a large one. How often do bold ideas run through your mind, but because you are busy tending to your day-to-day business, you do not act on them?

I have done that.

The challenge with bold ideas is first to pay attention. Stop, think the idea through, and mull it over. Ask a couple of people whose opinion you trust for their input. Be careful to ask those who are unbiased. If you know in advance what answer you will receive, why ask? Then act on the idea. Bold ideas love speed. If you receive a bold idea, don't shelve it in your "idea" file. Do something with it quickly.

If you don't, someone else will.