Six years ago, Inventor Jessica Pohlkamp sat in a car with a friend who fumbled in her purse and extracted a cell phone which was covered in visible smudges, fingerprints, and make-up residue.
To Jessica, who is Physical Therapist and finished requisite courses in biological sciences, the obvious grime was only a physical manifestation of a deeper problem—a milieu of harmful germs proliferating microscopically on the phone’s surface.
She watched her friend go through a pointless cleaning ritual of first rubbing the phone with her thumb, and then trying to wipe the face of the phone on her pant leg. Both these efforts further diminished any possibility of a cleanly resurrection.
Sufficiently ‘grossed out’, Jessica wanted to buy her friend some cleaning wipes, and to her bewilderment, she did not find anything specifically designed for this application.
“I wanted wipes which could clean, sanitize, and smell nice.” said Jessica. “Wipes of all kinds exist for other electronic items, but not for cell phones?”
Over the next couple of years, the indelible image of her friend’s grubby phone resurfaced in similar situations as when she witnessed fellow therapists wash their hands after assisting a patient, but did not wash their hands after touching a phone.
Although Jessica was more than inspired to create a cleaning product for cell phones, she faced her first mental obstacle thinking she had to formulate her own cleaning liquids and fragrances.
Daunted by this assumed process, Jessica sat on her idea for a couple more years, thinking she should give up. But her thoughts would not leave her mind, and if anything, intensified.
“It woke me up every morning and tucked me in bed every night,” said Jessica. “My heart hurt when I thought about some one 'taking' my idea.”
Yet, Jessica admittedly still did not act on her idea.
“I thought I was dreaming again.” said Jessica. “I have lots of ideas and I did nothing about them; how would this one be any different?”
Not until a few years later did Jessica’s light bulb grow brighter. At Thanksgiving dinner, Jessica’s brother-in-law, with an earful of Jessica’s dream and a mouthful of turkey, suggested that she simply call wipe manufacturers and ask them what was possible.
After extensive research, Jessica diligently called her leads. But easier said than done, Jessica faced a feared and typical ‘right of passage’ for new inventors—manufacturers did not take her seriously.
Shelving her idea for another year, Jessica opened her book once more after a dinner out for Indian food with her husband, mother, and the same brother-in-law.
This time around, her brother-in-law revealed his invention he had worked on for years, plunking it on the center of the table for everyone to ogle. (check out his under-glow lighting for furniture at www.LitStyle.com).
“I was so furious with myself, that my overhead light bulb became a meteorite,” said Jessica, who then resolutely concluded, that if her brother-in-law can do it, so could she.
With her new mantra ‘mind over matter’ and imagery of her retail-ready product, Jessica experienced renewed fire which, along with her confidence and determination, ultimately staked a US manufacturer to work with her.
To Be Continued with Part II
Check Out Jessica's Product
Cellysmellys
Scented Cleaning Wipes for Personal Electronics
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Eva Winger
www.TheInventorChronicles.com
TheInventorChronicles@live.com
follow me on that silly twitter thing @InventorChronic
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1 comments:
Oh Eva...you didn't need to do that over at Momprenuers.
I see you have been putting yourself way out there lately. You know how it is, the more you are in the public eye the more you run the risk of someone being really mad at something you did or said - you just never know what’s going to pop up and when – so watch your back and be careful.
Oh...Great blog...keep it up just like this
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