This post expands on my recent post about not slamming down potentially useable, patentable, creative ideas just because… “No one else has ever done it” or “Someone else has probably done it” or “I’ve never done that before.”
The reason I love the following story so much is that it happened to someone in my husband Bruce’s personal world!
Bruce went to high school with a woman who married a man named Phillip Morse – a man who followed his gut (and his dreams). Phil got the idea for a new invention, a catheter valve, while he was a salesman for a medical device company. When he presented the idea to his bosses, they refused it!
So convinced was he that the valve had merit that he founded his own company with the device, which he called the Morse manifold, as its core product. He went on to add other products and grew the company to $60 million in annual sales by 1994, when it was purchased by Pfizer for approximately $155 million in Pfizer stock!
Not one to stop at achieving one dream, Phil also now co-owns the Boston Red Sox! (While we aren’t in the Morses’ personal circle, Bruce and I have been fortunate enough to party at their home on Lake George when they’ve graciously hosted their class’s high school reunions… and there is a VERY cool Red Sox banner on the chimney!)
Below is the Pfizer announcement of its acquisition of Morse’s company, called Namic (about halfway down the article is where they describe how Phil started the company).
New York Times Archive article from Pfizer
How many of us have had – and continue to have – great ideas that are generated at our jobs? While some companies may refuse to even consider our ideas and others may use them without payment or recognition, others will implement them and reward employees handsomely for coming up with them!
At the very least, if we refuse to shut down our creativity on the job, we will have the satisfaction of knowing that our ideas are good, we’re helping others by coming up with them, and we never know where those ideas may lead us in the future!
