The essence of entrepreneuring…
From the Kauffman Foundation’s “Sketchbook” series, “Make it Happen,” a wonderful animation of a recent interview with Tim O’Reilly on the “Maker Movement” (see here and here)– and on what it can teach us about innovation and entrepreneurial energy:
click image above, or here, for video
For more, see CNN’s interview with Make‘s founder (and Tim’s long-time publishing partner), Dale Dougherty.
As we return with enthusiasm to our workbenches, we might recall that it was on this date in 1872 that U.S. Patent No.123,790 was awarded to Silas Noble and James P. Cooley for a device that allowed “a block of wood, with little waste and in one operation, [to] be cut up in to toothpicks ready for use.” The inventors had been working together since 1854, as drum makers; at the time of the toothpick breakthrough, their company , Noble and Cooley, which remains in the percussion business to this day, was manufacturing 100,000 drums per year.
So, in much the same way that an unplanned byproduct of NASA’s space program was the powdered drink that gave American households a convenient source of vitamin C (Tang), Noble and Cooley’s quest for better drum shells and sticks helped bring down the cost of cleaner teeth and healthier gums…
