This little piggy went to market,
This little piggy stayed home.
The first little pig had a wicked good idea,
The second little pig had none.
And the first little pig laughed,
Hee, hee, hee, hee,
All the way to the bank.
– Richard Saunders
So here it is: the new edition on the Eureka! Way. It’s what I am. Just as with the first book, it’s all I know-and all I’ve come to know about thinking smarter and more creatively. You hold in your hands my life’s work on personal creativity. On these pages is what I’ve learned from nearly 40 years of real world entrepreneurship.
My hope is that after reading these pages your hope is renewed, your resolve strengthened and your dreams that much closer to being realized.
The Eureka! way is good for you. It works. So here we go. Get ready! Get set! Let’s crank up your cranium!
Cheers,
Doug Hall
Springbrook, Prince Edward Island, Canada
Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A.
I
INTRODUCTION
How Is This Book Organized?
And Who Is Doug Hall?
“Words may show a man’s wit, but actions his meaning.”
– Ben Franklin
“Jump Start Your Brain” Is Presented in Three Acts
I’ll warn you up front: Jump Start Your Brain is not a scholarly work. It’s sewn together with lots of grins, a few smirks, and all the stuff I know about inventing new-to-the-world ideas. My aim is to educate a little, entertain a little. My personal hero and America’s first great inventor, Ben Franklin, had the same philosophy. In fact, some historical accounts suggest that the reason he wasn’t asked to write the Declaration of Independence was for fear he’d slip a joke into it.
• ACT I, BRAIN TRAINING: SETTING YOUR MENTAL FOCUS TO NEW-TO-THE-WORLD IDEAS.
• Act II, Jump Start Techniques: 30 ways to reinvent your life and career, each explained step by step.
• Act III, Go4It!: Even the most glorious, magical idea won’t do you much good if you can’t make it real. Act III contains inspirational adrenaline to help you turn your dreams into reality.
Disclaimers, Warnings, and Other Minutiae
If you are allergic to data, you’ll love this book. My apologies, data geeks. Though the book itself is based on hard data–from academic journals and original research–I’ve purposely kept technical discussions to a minimum. This book is designed to tell you in simple, action-oriented terms how to think smarter and more creatively about your life and career. Plain. Simple. Go.
If you like fun, you’ll love this book. This book is written to provoke a sense of playfulness of mind and spirit. If you’re a mature and proper RWA (Real World Adult), you might find the free-spirited nature of the writing, the use of BOLD FACE and lots of !!!!!!’s a bit annoying. But it’s how I talk. It’s who I am. The kindest thing said to me after my appearance on network television was that I was being myself. Besides, LIFE IS TO BE ENJOYED! There are too many BORING BOOKS ALREADY!
The Urgency for Thinking Smarter and More Creatively
In today’s world, victory goes to those who have the most meaningful offering. This means those with the best ideas win. To paraphrase Emerson—“Build a better mousetrap, and the World Wide Web will open your door to success.”
In the old days, you could build a business with a mediocre offering or with a lack of price competitiveness. In today’s instant-connection world, this strategy is far less successful. The World Wide Web has created a true free market economy where meaningful ideas are the currency for success.
The consequences of not developing meaningful ideas are extreme. If we don’t think smarter and more creatively, we’re all going to end up working for the folks in China and India.
My Name Is Doug Hall
I’ve been called many things….
• “America’s No. 1 New Product Idea Man” (Inc. Magazine)
• “America’s No. 1 Idea Guru” (A&E Top 10 and CIO Magazine)
• “Procter & Gamble Marketing Whiz” (Wall Street Journal)
• “An eccentric entrepreneur who just might have what we’ve all been looking for … the happy secret to success.” (Dateline NBC)
• “Counter-culture Entrepreneur” (New York Magazine)
• “Short, Balding Troll” (Comedy Central)
•“The Most Annoying Man in America” (Simon Cowell on The Tonight Show)
• Modern Day Ben Franklin (Joyce Wycoff)
• “Mr. Know-It-All” (ABC-TV’s American Inventor)
And my personal favorite …
• “Business Robin Hood” (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
That’s the hype on me. The plain truth is, I’m a short balding guy with a taste for comfortable tropical shirts, comfortable jeans, and comfortable Birkenstock sandals. The difference is, I’m not afraid to think big, and I have sufficient supplies of energy and enthusiasm to turn my ideas into reality.
The Early Years—Real World Entrepreneur
I was born of a middle-class family in Portland, Maine, 253 years to the day after the birth of Ben Franklin, a circumstance that has tinted my outlook and influenced who I am.
At the age of 12, I started my first business performing as a magician and juggler and selling “learn to juggle kits”, magic tricks, and balloon animal kits. I called myself Merwyn the Magician, after my dad, who was not a magician and who deeply regrets the fact that his first name sounds a lot like Merlin.
In college I formed Campus Promotions International, a little company that marketed beer mugs, T-shirts, and just about anything you could print a logo on to four different campuses. I published a vinyl phone book cover, the kind with the ads all over them. Money was tight, so I took lots of items in trade. I got a diamond ring from a jeweler that way. It was the ring I gave to Debbie, my high school sweetheart, when I proposed.
Twenty-something—Corporate Rebel
The University of Maine spat me into the world in 1981 with a degree in chemical engineering and a hankering to get into marketing. I’d worked as a summer engineer at Procter & Gamble’s Mehoopany, Pennsylvania, paper plant in the pulp mill, where I learned that chemical engineering was not my life’s mission.
Instead of taking the classic path for a chemical engineer, I applied to P&G’s advertising department. At the interview, I performed a few magic tricks, figuring that any company that couldn’t appreciate a trick or two was not a place where I wanted to work. I got an offer and was hired on with Coast soap, a fine deodorant bar.
“Were there times I wanted to strangle Doug? Absolutely. He was what I call a ‘high-maintenance subordinate.’ You had to watch him like crazy. He’d be nodding at what I was saying, but his mind would be somewhere else. Linear, he’s not. His divergence paid off a number of times in the context of inventions that would not have been discovered simply by taking incremental steps forward from where we were.”
– Barb Thomas, my