How Charles Goodyear Earned Fame and Fortune from Problem Solving

Charles Goodyear’s name is synonymous with vehicle tryes. You might have come across tyres having the name Goodyear inscribed on them. But he was not the founder of vehicle tyres.

Goodyear began life with no formal education, but he had a burning desire to achieve great success in life. In 1821, he partnered with his father in a hardware business but the business failed.

Later, Goodyear discovered a big problem in the automobile industry. This problem was not with the engine or body of vehicles, but with the tyres. Vehicle tyres in the early years were hard and inflexible. As a result of this, vehicles’ velocity were not smooth.

The solution to the problem of hardness and inflexibility of vehicle tyres became the preoccupation of Goodyear. He looked for a way of making rubber, the raw material for vehicle tyres, soft and flexible.

He experimented for many years, all to no avail. But in 1839, after years of futile efforts in finding solution to the problem, Goodyear accidentally discovered a way of solving the problem.

How he discovered the solution was that he accidentally dropped a piece of rubber that had been treated with sulphur on his hot stove. And what he observed was that the rubber became soft and flexible. Thus, Goodyear discovered what is called “vulcanization,” which is a process of heating rubber and sulphur at a high temperature which makes the rubber soft and flexible.

Goodyear wasted no time in applying the solution to solve the problem of vehicle tyres once and for all. Today, in the automobile and rubber manufacturing industry, vulcanization remains the process of manufacturing tyres and rubbers.

Though not the founder of vehicle tyres, greater glory went to Goodyear for bringing in the innovation that greatly improved on the quality of vehicle tyres and rubbers.

Lessons from Goodyear

Dear reader, what can we learn from the success story of Goodyear? How can we earn fame and fortune from solving problems of humanity? Below are some lessons we can imbibe to turn our problem-solving skill into fame and fortune:

1.   Be Innovative

To make fortune from problem-solving, don’t bother being a founder; be an innovator. Being a founder is a bit more difficult than being an innovator. It may not be easy for all of us to be founders or discoverers, but all of us can be innovators. It is easier to come up with ideas that can be used to improve the quality of an existing product than to come up with non-existing product idea.

This is not meant to discourage you from inventing new products/things. If you are willing to make necessary sacrifices, like Thomas Edison did when he tried 10,000 times to discover the incandescent bulb, before he eventually succeeded, then, you should put on your thinking cap and invent a product or products that will benefit humanity.

In addition to being a founder, consider being an innovator as well. Most people referred to as inventors are more or less innovators. They didn’t actually invent the products. Someone else invented them, but they they take the glory by improving or adding more value to it.

Graham Bell was not the original inventor of the telephone. He started where the inventor stopped and eventually came up with a highly improved device for communication. Marconi was not the founder of radio; he took off where from where the original founder stopped and came up with an effective means of transmitting messages over a long distance. And of course, Charles Goodyear was not the inventor of vehicle tyres; he was only an innovator. He discovered a way of making vehicle tyres soft and flexible. By so doing, he earned greater glory for his effort.

Being an innovator is not so difficult. Take a pen and paper and start jotting down products you haver come across that are of poor quality. Whenever you buy a product/service and you see that what you paid for is not what you want, write it down.

After jotting them down, start thinking of how you can add value to the product to make it better. INNOVATION IS THE KEY TO INVENTION. And it all begins with ideas, thinking and creativity.

2.   Be More of a Creator than an Academic  

If you want to be a problem-solver and make fortunes from your problem-solving ability, be more of a creator than an academia. Formal education is not a prerequisite for innovation or problem-solving. You don’t have to be a degree holder, a post graduate or a professor to make fortunes from problem solving.

A person with little formal education but is willing to rack his brain and come up with solutions to problems bedeviling mankind, is sure going to earn fame and fortune for himself.      

Henry Ford of Ford Motors Corporation is one of the greatest inventors in the world, but he had little formal education. However, he was a great thinker, a man of great ideas and a man who believed he could find solutions to every problem he wanted to solve.

Dear reader, don’t use lack of formal education as an excuse for not being a problem solver. To a great extent, we are all problem solvers. We earn a living from making product/services available to those who need them. This is the problem solving we are talking about.

However, it is not just enough to meeting the people’s needs. It is equally important that you add value to the products/services you are offering to people. What will distinguish you and make you stand out in life is the VALUE you create. In reality, people don’t just buy products/services; they buy VALUE.

This is why you must focus on creating value. Add value to your products/services before offering them for public consumption. IF YOU ADD VALUE TO THE PRODUCT/SERVICE YOU ARE OFFERING HUMANITY, I ASSURE YOU THAT YOU WILL STAND OUT IN LIFE.

Regardless of your occupation, business, trade, vocation or profession, you can stand out from the rest of the pack, if you will add value to what you are doing in order to better the lof of the generality of the people.

We are seeing it happen everyday how some persons in the lower rung of the ladder are attaining national recognition because of the value they add to what they are doing.

In the National Merit Award ceremony held in 2014, I watched with keen interest the live broadcast of the ceremony on TV how former Nigerian President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan decorated common citizens who distinguished themselves in their work place.

Among the awardees was a taxi driver who was kind enough to return several millions of naira left in his car by passenger he did not know. There was also a traffic warden whose commitment, hardwork, seriousness and dedication earned him national recognition. And of course, there was this teacher who was described as a teacher of teachers and a moulder of people’s destiny. He also earned a national award for his commitment, hardwork, dedication and contribution to national development.

Dear reader, the fact is this: you may be a cleaner, messenger, attendant, mason, mechanic, carpenter, etc; it doesn’t matter. If you are willing to add value to what you are doing, you will stand out, you will be elevated.

You may be adding value to what you are doing and you may think no one is noticing it. Never get discouraged and quit. You can’t keep adding value to your work without being noticed. Let me assure you that someone is out there taking notice of the value you are creating.

If the awardees of the National Merit Award are honest enough, they would tell you that they never knew that people and indeed the Federal Government of Nigeria were taking notice of the value thay were adding to what they were doing.

So, never stop adding value to what you are doing.some time, someday, somewhere, your effort will be richly rewarded.

Until I come your way soon, go and live victoriously!