Creativity... Rocks

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He made millions in 6 months during a recession.

I heard the fireside stories of the mid-1970’s recession from my father.

It was dark.

There were tales of hour-long waits at the gas pump for your rationing, scores of young men hung over from war, civil unrest and crime on the rise, and not a job to be found anywhere.

And then there was Gary Dahl.

Gary was an ad copywriter who, during a light-hearted session of joking around with some friends, shared that he didn’t have to worry about cats and dogs tearing up the house because he had a “pet rock.”

The idea stuck with him, and for funsies he wrote an “Instruction Manual” for owning a pet rock. How to teach it to sit, to stay, and to “play dead.”

He figured he was on to something, and decided to go all in.

Raising some startup cash, he went to work on designing the “pet carrier” style box packaging (which read “This box contains one genuine pedigreed Pet Rock”), and went to a trade show.

It was an immediate hit.

He got orders from Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, and other nationwide retailers. At one point he was shipping out over 100k rocks a day. Incredible.

The fad came and went in one holiday shopping season, but not before he generated over $6,000,000 in revenue (in 1975 dollars!).

He netted over $1M when all the dust settled.

His investors made 20x return in a matter of months.

And all from a little creativity, some outside-the-box thinking, and taking a brand new idea to market (in a hurry).

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