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Old October 27, 2000, 10:02 PM
Dien Rice
 
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Default Giving your product an unusual "twist" -- as Joe Cossman did....

Hi Marty,

Hmm... with that business, cleaning up the "work space" afterwards might not be the greatest too....

But you're right, it's quite unusual! :) Thanks....

Here's another story.... It's about giving an old unsuccessful product a new "twist" so it becomes successful....

Someone brought an unusual product to Joe Cossman which they couldn't sell. It was a pair of earrings with little bells on them! No matter what they did, they weren't selling....

Why wouldn't their product work?

Was there any way to sell it?

Could it still succeed?

They were pulling their hair out with frustration!

Joe Cossman took the product, and gave it a little "twist". He called the earrings "mother-in-law earrings" (this way, you could hear your mother-in-law coming) -- and turned a failed product into a successful one!

You can find this story (and many others) in either the book "Making It!" by E. Joseph Cossman and William A. Cohen, or in "How I Made $1,000,000 in Mail Order (and you can too)" by E. Joseph Cossman (I've forgotten which one)....

This won't work for everything -- everyone has had their failures, Joe Cossman too.... (The key with that is to limit your down-side, according to the successful British entrepreneur Richard Branson....)

But the story is good food for thought!

Here's a saying also from "How I Made $1,000,000..."

Secret of success: Think big, work hard, have a dream.

Too true!

Dien Rice