The Daily Mail has an interesting little article on an inventor who appeared on a British reality television show where "experts" decide on the merits of the invention. This man appeared and his idea was positively savaged by the panel of judges. They were pretty well merciless with the poor inventor.
Who has since sold thousands and thousands and thousands of his invention.
Less than a year ago he stood chastened as the Dragons' Den judges gave him a typically fiery dressing down.
Now inventor Rob Law is having the last laugh after a product rejected as 'worthless' on the BBC television programme for budding entrepreneurs has proved a huge commercial hit.
Mr Law, 29, from Bath, spent 11 years – and £17,000 of his own money – refining his design for a wheelie suitcase which doubles up as a child's ride-on toy.
The plastic Trunki case is designed to allow youngsters aged three to six to take their own bag on holiday – and to sit on it when they are tired.
But when Mr Law appeared on Dragons' Den last September, he was given short shrift by the famously stern panel of investors.
Businessman Theo Paphitis, chair-man of the Ryman chain of stationers, ridiculed the product after managing to pull off one of the straps. His colleague Deborah Meadon, head of a holiday firm, declared bluntly that there was no market for the case.
And the notoriously brusque tele-communications tycoon Peter Jones declared: "I meet people like you all the time – you think you have something. I tell you, you don't."
He added: "Within seven days I could do a better job than that. Your company is currently worthless."
The panel declined Mr Law's offer to give up 10 per cent of his fledgling company in return for a £100,000 investment – an offer which valued the firm at £1 million.
However, it now appears that the experts missed a valuable trick.
Yeah, by a little bit. Law has now sold some 85,000 of his inventions and they are hotter than heck at some very, very large British stores. Oh, and Law's company is worth quite a lot more than the money he was turned down for by the "experts". And Laws owns the entire company – 100%.
As a parent who has herded tired and grumpy young children through some pretty horrible airports, I can tell you that this idea is sheer genius. Giving kids the ability to help with their own luggage – great. Giving them a place to sit when they are exhausted – brilliant.
You know, I will probably never think of any new invention that will make me rich. I realize that. But there is something so heart-warming to hear about the “average man” putting his ideas into action, building a company, making lots of money… And then getting to stick it to the “experts.”