Howzabout…

The most typical reaction I get when people first hear about the concept behind Howzabout.org is one of disbelief. Nearly everyone seems to think that creating a website that invites corporations to steal my concept is foolish, and they usually then inform me that they would never be dumb enough to let someone else get rich off their idea. Which has led me to the surprising revelation that everybody and their brother has a can’t miss innovation that would make them fabulously rich, if only they could find the time to work on it. But like Nathan Arizona says, “If a frog had wings, it wouldn’t bump its ass a- hoppin’.”

So therein lies the rub: most of us simply won’t ever make an attempt to bring our ideas to life. The reasons are varied, but once you get past lack of conviction you usually end up at time and money (or the lack of both). What constrains an individual doesn’t necessarily constrain a business, however, so many of the obstacles between an inventive thought and its realization are removed if the appropriate people are made aware of the potential innovation. So if you really are interested in creating something new, corporations are a terrific resource. And besides, your idea can’t be stolen if you give it away first.

But it is understandable to question why someone else should profit from my insight. Don’t I want one of my ideas to hit it big and bring my family wealth and financial independence? Of course I do, but I would like to win the lottery as well, and I probably have a better chance of that panning out for me, and I don’t even play! By the time I secured some sort of patent, created a legitimate prototype and gained the audience of a decision maker that actually saw the promise of my proposed innovation, I would have made it closer to the inventor’s Promised Land than most. Yet at that point I would barely be out of the gate! Untold amounts of cash and energy would need to have been poured into the idea, and still the chances of my being ripped off outright would probably be greater than those of my securing a big pay day.

Inventors all have their involved explanations of The One That Got Away, sad stories of how their fame and fortune were unfairly taken from them. I certainly can’t blame anyone that has had that happen to them for feeling resentful and bitter, but I have to be honest, I don’t ever want to find myself commiserating with them.

Being a bit anxious to get things rolling, I have written a press release announcing the launch of the Howzabout.org website and the associated blog. I intend to come up with a way to keep a list of media outlets I have sent the release, and I hope to receive suggestions for other companies to contact. Read the release.

I would ask the Howzabout community to disseminate this downloadable PDF of the site’s launch announcement far and wide. Even if you aren’t convinced that the “Million Dollar” idea I put forth here is worth pursuing, I think the potential benefit of showing the world that an idea can take on a life of its own if only given the chance is worth a few moments of your time. Who’s to say what might happen in a chaotic system like the Internet? A butterfly flaps its wings ….

Thank you in advance for your help everyone.

In writing a press release for the launch of the Howzabout site, I found myself using much of the same language I had on the site, which I guess only makes sense, since I tried my best to boil things down to their simplest form from the outset. But when using a more “businesslike” tone, referring to Howabout as a company, I realized something was missing – a slogan.

A slogan is meant to encapsulate the essence of what makes a product or company what it is, quickly explaining why the thing was created in the first place. So after much reflection, I have identified the point of my endeavor, and I would summarize it this way: Great Ideas Deserve To Be Free.™

A friend asked me this the other day, and I was embarrassed to realize that it hadn’t really occurred to me, which makes this a perfect example of how ideas are never going to be fully thought out in a vacuum.

I’m sure there are many other factors that I have neglect to account for, and this area of the site is meant to help me identify and incorporate the thoughts of the Howzabout community.

To answer the above question, I suppose the mechanism could just be replicated on the passenger side. Which makes me realize (he he) that in my explanation I refer to the 10 o’clock position when I ought to have said the 2 o’clock position. I think I’ll go fix that….

Building A Better … Ashtray?!

The Problem
Cigarette smokers make their automobiles unpleasant and unhealthy for non-smokers. The smell surely has a negative impact on resale value as well.

The Opportunity
Develop a ventilation system that reduces the amount of lingering smoke in the passenger cabin.

The Insight
Roof pillars can be tubular to increase strength for added protection in rollovers, which allows them to double as air ducts.

The Execution
Move the ashtray from the center column, where it ordinarily sits out of easy view, necessitating drivers to divert their attention from the road, to the 2 o’clock position, between the windscreen and door window, thus enhancing safety and moving lit cigarettes away from passengers. By incorporating a powered fan to pull smoke up and out of a roof vent, the amount of smoke build-up is vastly reduced, as is the instance of ash covering interior surfaces.

The Selling Point
Cold and/or rainy days no longer would produce the miserable condition of huddling at a cracked window in order to vent the car while assuaging the nicotine gods. This approach would also minimize the impact of secondhand smoke on the health of regular passengers, which are often the driver’s own children. Rental cars would be more accommodating to non-smokers as well.

The Incidental Benefits
A ceramic lined receptacle could allow a butt to be dropped into the ashtray while still lit. The lack of ash build up might also encourage smokers to break another terrible habit – that of infuriatingly throwing butts out of their car windows – by making the currently dirty task of emptying an ashtray much cleaner and easier. The resulting reduction of litter and avoidable roadside fires allows this concept to positively impact society in general.

The Howzabout blog serves as a forum to discuss automotive improvements of all sorts. Read some other car improvement freebies in the $250,000 Dollar Ideas post.

Click here to download the Howzabout.org press release.

Once I’ve had a chance to incorporate some of the feedback I hope to receive here, I want to get the idea out into the world and in front of as many people as I can. I’ll be creating a press release and sending it to the major automotive magazines. Any suggestions where else I should send it? I doubt the major news agencies would take this seriously at the moment, but maybe there are some specialized press agencies I should contact?

Ideas can always be refined, and I’m open to suggestions. Thanks for taking an interest in my concept.