Disgusting but effective
Written by John Teel.
My 12-year-old son Aidan is, without a doubt, the most persistent person I’ve ever known.
He’s the kind of kid who will argue for an hour about doing something that would only take five minutes to complete.
Ask him to clean his room? He’ll spend 45 minutes laying out a detailed case for why it’s not that messy, why he’s too busy, or why it would be far more efficient to wait until tomorrow.
Best-case scenario, he’ll pivot into debating the “best” method for cleaning it—all of which takes infinitely longer than just picking up the stinky socks and Legos.
It’s clear he hasn’t seen the Nike slogan: Just do it.
When he was a baby, he developed the ultimate weapon of persuasion—a technique so effective, so impossible to ignore, that it worked every single time.
Don’t get me wrong, I admire his persistence, and genuinely believe it will serve him well in life—if he can aim it in the right direction.
But as a parent? It can be exhausting.
Once he started school, I thought his teachers might break through where we hadn’t, teaching him the importance of following instructions and working within the system.
Instead, the opposite happened. His persistence forced every teacher to instead adapt to him.
Luckily, he’s also incredibly likable, with a knack for charming everyone he meets.
But let me tell you, his persistence isn’t always so nice. Sometimes, it’s downright insurmountable.
Remember that ultimate weapon of persuasion I mentioned him mastering as a baby?
If he wanted something we refused to give him, or if we made him do something he didn’t want to do, he’d resort to this.
No matter how firm I was, he still always won with this technique.
So what was his ultimate weapon of persuasion?
He would projectile vomit on us, himself, and anything else within weapons range.
Middle of the night? He’d puke.
Long car ride? Puke. Airplane ride? No problem, puke. Grocery store checkout line? Puke.
It was disgusting, and it worked like a charm. There’s no ignoring a kid covered in vomit—especially when it’s also on your shirt.
Thankfully, he outgrew that little trick after about a year. But that sheer willpower, that ability to go all-in to get what he wanted?
That never went away. And most days I don’t want it to😊
That level of persistence is one of the most important qualities anyone can have to succeed in life—especially if you’re trying to bring a new product to life.
When it comes to creating and bringing a new product to market, persistence is the difference between success and giving up halfway.
For example, your first design likely won’t work as intended. You’ll have to iterate, test, and repeat—over and over.
Without persistence, it’s easy to get discouraged and quit before you’ve solved the problems.
I think the most important, but too often skipped step of creating a new product is talking with potential customers to better understand the problem your product is attempting to solve.
But for most people, especially us introverted folks, talking with strangers about our product sounds terrifying. You’ll need persistence to force you to do it anyways!
Convincing customers, investors, developers, manufacturers, and distributors to believe in your product takes a lot of persistence.
You’ll hear a lot of “no’s” before you get a “yes,” and you absolutely cannot let that stop you.
If you keep pushing through design challenges, personal anxiety, and market skepticism—you’ll have a much better chance of seeing your product succeed.
Now, I’m not saying you should mimic my son’s ultimate persuasion tactic. Vomiting on yourself surely won’t win over any customers or investors.
But if you can channel that same level of determination and refusal to give up, you’ll truly be unstoppable.
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