• Home
• Magazine
• Blog & Podcast
• Idealog TV
• Directory
• Celsias

• Business Magazine of the Year MPA Awards 2007, 2008 & 2009 Business Website of the Year MPA Awards 2009

In praise of Gilligan's Island

Every idea has its fans and its critics. What it needs is a passionate owner

[Advertising]

A smarter ad guy than me once said that the million-dollar skill in the advertising game is to be able to recognise a great idea when you see it. That was back in the 90s, so it must be a multimillion-dollar skill now. Ideas are like people. Some you meet and take an instant shine to. Others you’re indifferent to but you grow to appreciate them, and some you dislike with a passion—only to later find you have done a 180-degree turn.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone he thought it would mainly be used by people on different floors of the same building. Maybe that’s why he offered his invention to Western Union for only $100,000. Even then, the president of Western Union wasn’t impressed, dismissing the telephone as nothing more than a toy. Two years later he told colleagues that if he could get the patent for $25 million he’d consider it a bargain.

Truly great ideas often seem small, or even stupid, at first. Even though some people can spot a great idea and grasp the potential immediately, the market usually doesn’t—and it often invests in bad ideas.Look at the dot-flops of the late 90s, when the computer geeks who saw the future of the Internet teamed up with moneymen who saw a future filled with cash. The problem was that Joe and Jane Public didn’t have their heads around the online world yet. Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come (that could be the slogan of Paris Disneyland). Many of the dot-flops had good ideas behind them but they were over-capitalised by greedy people and burned out before the market could catch on.

But eight years down the track, the public is up to speed, dot-com business is taking off and it’s often the simplest ideas that are making it. Take YouTube—a site to stick movies. There’s no amazing breakthrough there and, like Facebook, it didn’t even come along at the start of the Internet. The world must be full of people thinking “I could have done that” or “If only I had been one of the YouTube investors”. But here’s a question: if, back in 2004, a nerdy young college guy had asked you to invest a big wad of precious cash in a website where people could stick their movies, would you have recognised that idea for what it was to become?

The world of ideas isn’t like the movies. The good ideas don’t always win, and sometimes the ‘not-quite-as-good ideas’ triumph. Take the VHS-versus-Beta wars of the 80s. On paper, Beta should have won, because it was better. But it didn’t.

The ideas people I really admire are those visionaries who believe in their idea so much they are prepared to invest everything to make it happen. Those who put their money where their mouths are. I’m not talking about a guy who is already worth millions and has to stump up only a few bucks—I mean the people who mortgage the house because they back themselves.

In the 1830s, Charles Goodyear was deserted by three financial backers in turn and spent every penny his family had. He even sold his children’s schoolbooks for a few dollars to pursue his dream. But with the support of only his wife and (so the story goes) an accident on the kitchen stove, his idea of vulcanised rubber became reality. From tyres to TV: Sherwood Schwartz, the creator of Gilligan’s Island, had to fight network executives rather than angry seas to get his show on air. But it paid off and made him rich. Years later when he had the idea of doing Rescue From Gilligan’s Island, no one was interested. So he put up his own cash to make what was then the most expensive made-for-TV movie in history. It was a ratings winner. Now we can argue the merits of the show that was bagged by critics but you’ve got to admire Schwartz and the fact he believed in his idea so much he risked a comfortable retirement to bring it to life.

At the other end of the spectrum you have some of the tragedies that a show like Dragons’ Den exposes. Here you see people who have invested time and money in what is sometimes a stunningly bad idea, like the guy on the American version of the show who invented a giant bag you carry around on your shoulder. When you need to wee you unroll it, climb in, make use of the empty bladder attached inside, and then roll it up and go on your way. I can see that being a huge hit with the front rows at Christmas in the park. This guy wasn’t taking the piss (he was leaving that to the user). He genuinely thought he was onto something. He had even picked out the range of colours for his mobile urinal. Now that’s self-belief.

There are many motivations for bringing an idea to life, and you always run the risk of ridicule or failure. But behind the dreams of money and fame lies the need to create. The drive to bring a concept, a thought, to life. Goodyear lived only 16 years after his invention and although he saw it applied to hundreds of new uses and lodged another 60 patents, he never made a lot of money himself. He died a poor man but not a bitter one. In his book, which was printed on gum-elastic sheets and bound in hard rubber, he said: “The writer is not disposed to repine and say that he has planted and others have gathered the fruits. The advantages of a career in life should not be estimated exclusively by the standard of dollars and cents, as it is too often done. Man has just cause for regret when he sows and no one reaps.”

Peter Vegas, an ad guy with many years’ experience thinking up ideas, is creative director at Impact BBDO in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and blogs his heart out at petervegas.blogspot.com

Add your comment

HTML will be removed. Web addresses will be automatically hyperlinked.

Anonymous comments are queued before publishing and may take some time to appear. Or you can create an account and your comment will bypass our bureaucracy.

Your comment Name Email (hidden) Website Security check

Tweeted

Overheard

• steer seo on Bigger, faster, more productive:
  It's got to be good for online retailers selling to the US. They will be able to offer a better multi-media experience.
• Mark on Bigger, faster, more productive:
  Fantastic! Finally some vision in establishing a key infrastructure to support New Zealand's future prosperity and commercial competitiveness. Good work Rod, Sam and Steve - your country thanks you for your patriotism!  …
• Margaret Holmes on NZ Institute thumbs down Key's agenda:
  Unfortunately it is not just red tape - it is also the laid back kiwi attitude, compounded by educators who think achieving national standards is a bad thing.
• Tim Marshall on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  The target of higher GDP per capita is all wrong. Aiming for it encourages more production and consumption, often at the expense of quality of life. We need to construct a Genuine Progress Index (GPI) to guide policy. Fr  …
• Peter McL on New note:
  "You got caught up in events at EMI.." and yet shes STILL with EMI - their local branch is distributing her new album. Wonder why?
  
  I blogged some more of Hollies comments on the details behind the fallout  …
• Phil Wollerman on Smile, you’re in New Zealistan:
  Brilliant, insightful article, VH.
  
  This situation has principally arisen because - simplistically - the world no longer wants what we are intrinsically advantaged in supplying.
  
  And yeah, it doesn't look like our co  …

• Back to top
• Looking for something else? Check the site map
• © 2005–2010 Idealog. All rights reserved. ISSN 1179–3465