Plastic Straws

Joel did.

Joel lived in Pennsylvania … and just didn’t connect with his family’s business manufacturing small plastic products. However, after a while, he reluctantly he started helping out and found he liked it and was good at it. Eventually he and his brother took over the company. Fast forward 30 years and Joel was looking forward to retiring early and playing a lot more golf. But one day, he was at a wedding reception and a bit bored … he didn’t dance so he sat at an empty table. Picking up some discarded drinking straws he started putting them together … and then added some more straws … and that’s when he had a great idea … maybe a toy that connected together like the straws might be interesting … so he went back to work and created what he thought was a very cool one … and then he pitched his toy idea to Hasbro, Mattel, Lego and others … they all said no. Undeterred Joel decided to make the toy himself and started selling it in local shops … well a buyer for Toys R US liked it and showed to his boss and soon Joel’s toy was in every Toys R US around the world.

Today, over 25 years later, the toy Joel Glickman invented by playing with some discarded straws while bored at a wedding reception, now sells over $100 million a year of its many kits … K’Nex.

K’Nex is a great idea because inspiration can happen anywhere if you can just put the pieces together.