Throughout history, there are many examples of inventors that have created things that nobody liked. In case you didn’t know, the person credited in history with creating the automobile is Nicholas-Joseph Cugnot in 1725 who created a steam-powered, self-propelled road vehicle for the French Army, according to the Library of Congress. In 1832, the first electric vehicle was created and in 1885/1886, the first gasoline powered internal combustion engine was created. These were all actually created, not simply invented or thought of. If you want to include “thought of,” you would have to go all of the way back to 1478 as Leonardo DaVinci was sketching out cars, helicopters, submarines, tanks, robots, the parachute and the suspension bridge, all while painting the Mona Lisa (in his spare time, Im sure.)
Fast-forward to Henry Ford. 431 years after DaVinci rolled the Model T off the assembly line, people didn’t like or want them. His most famous quote (at least in my opinion) is “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
And now, here we are. I think people like cars now.
Don’t be afraid to get creative. Don’t be afraid to dream. Don’t listen to naysayers or people that try and distract you from those dreams. Do what you believe the world needs, not what they believe that they do. The innovative technology in our business exists only because someone dreamed it and made it. Only AFTER it was made was it adopted by dealers [think websites… wink wink.]
Do your thing.
[P.S. A famous rumor is that the first car accident that involved two cars was in Detroit, Michigan. There were only two cars in existence on the road at that time but they somehow managed to run into each other. You can Google it. It can’t be verified but there is always some fact in different stories.]
