The Moment I Knew I Had to Quit My Dream Job
Written by John Teel.
It was on a return flight from a life-changing vacation in Alaska when I decided to become an entrepreneur.
I was so moved by the wildlife and natural beauty that I wanted to make lots of money so I could help protect such wild places.
More money than I could ever make as an engineer.
But, being a microchip design engineer for Texas Instruments was the job I dreamed of since I was a child.
And I’ve always been obsessed with electronics.
I loved my job. I was great at my job. And I was passionate about it…for about 10 years.
But, I’ve also dreamed of being an entrepreneur most of my life.
And, honestly, I was tired of spending so much of my life in a tiny office in a city.
I wanted more freedom, more control, and more impact in the world!
So I began the process of brainstorming different business and product ideas.
Then one night while struggling to see the buttons on a remote control while watching a movie in the dark, my product idea struck me.
That idea was a low-cost miniature lighting device that illuminated any surface that it was attached to, including among many things, remote controls.
I named it the Pop-up MicroLite.
When you pressed the top it would pop-up and shine light downward illuminating the surface it was attached to.
Keep in mind this was years ago before illuminated remote controls and smartphones were popular.
Next, I began building early prototypes using just clay and foam.
Within a few months I had my first 3D printed prototype which was quite crude and not functional yet.
Before proceeding further with prototyping, and spending a large sum of money, I decided my strategy would be to get a single big company to express interest in my product.
I hoped this would be the product-market validation I needed, and that it would open up new doors for me.
So I decided to make Blockbuster Video my primary target.
They seemed ideal for a product that could illuminate remote controls when watching movies in the dark.
You do remember Blockbuster, right?
This was back when they were a huge, internationally known company.
So how did I get through to Blockbuster Video?
First, I found the email addresses for several of their vice presidents.
Then I decided to reach out to their Vice-President of Purchasing.
I sent him a really short email describing my product.
And I also attached a sales flyer featuring a picture of my product in use on a remote control.
Although, at this point my prototype was still barely functional, and was nowhere near ready for market.
Within a day, he replied. His message was brief but blissful for me to hear:
“Looks interesting, tell me more.”
Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled!
To have a top executive at a multi-billion dollar retailer tell me my product was “interesting” was a huge jolt of energy.
I’m pretty sure I did some sort of a ridiculously looking dance:)
A few days later, I was in communication with their head retail buyer over merchandise in all of their thousands of stores.
This experience taught me something important—getting early validation doesn’t require a perfect product.
It just requires the courage to reach out and show someone what you’ve done.
That one short email changed everything.
If you’re developing and launching a new product then get the guidance from me and other experts inside my Hardware Academy platform.
