Subject: Pink Gorilla and evolution of ideas
Location: Miami Beach, Florida
South Pointe Park. Located in Miami Beach, Florida.
If you haven't been yet...go. One of my favorite places in the world.
My business partner/best friend and I have spent hundreds of hours walking bayside masterminding.
Ideas, philosophy, psychology and every aspect of life was discussed.
Sometimes we would meet there before having a night out bar hopping. Miami nightlife starts late so we would usually get there around 10PM, start a conversation and five hours later, the "epic night out" ended up being a passionate conversation overlooking the beautiful blue Miami water.
6 months ago I came to him with a business idea. I'm going to create a print-on-demand clothing company. Calling it "Alpha T-shirts" and we will market it to men.
(Have you ever had a genius idea and realized in hindsight it was terrible?)
A couple laps around the park later, Chris (business partner now) said that he liked the idea but would never wear an "alpha shirt".
I paused. Thought deeply, and realized neither would I.
Why create a product that we are not proud enough to wear ourselves?
Where is the authenticity in that?
He continued "If I were to have a company like that it would be connected to Gorillas."
Boom.
That's it!
Gorilla shirts!
Perfect. Full speed ahead. That's the million dollar idea.
Let's go.
The evolution of an idea
Ideas are just a thought. Imagine an idea as a piece of clay.
You start off with the "let's start a blog!". That's the lump sum of clay.
Over time you decide it's going to discuss dogs. Great now the clay has some form.
A month goes by and you realize that it's not really about dogs but about animal rights. Now the clay really is starting to look like something.
Three months later you realize it's not animal rights but specifically about stopping all animal testing for colognes.
Now, your clay is evolving into a finished product.
The thing about this piece of clay, is that it will never be a finished product.
With time, energy and deep thought all focused on this piece of clay, it will transform and evolve.
Now back to my story 🙂
A week of focused thought and discussion about Gorilla shirts, we realized that it's missing something.
It's great. Gorillas are the shit. 600 lbs of mean muscle. The king of the jungle.
However, it's not complete.
It's close but not the whole picture.
Chris mentioned he was driving around Coral Gables (another area in Miami) and saw a store named Purple Cow.
He said the name stuck with him for some reason. I remember going over a book by Seth Godin named Purple Cow as well. The name stuck.
It was very incongruent, and in our world filled with routine...what sticks out stands out.
We started going color by color.
Blue Gorilla.
Purple Gorilla.
Black Gorilla.
Green Gorilla.
Red Gorilla.
Nothing. Pink wasn't even a option for some strange reason.
The next day as I was driving, pink flooded my mind. The name came instantly, and as with most truly great ideas, we know.
We know instantly that this is the one. It's a feeling that strikes deep in our core.
No need to use language to explain why it felt correct, but it was.
Pink Gorilla Fashion was born.
No more print-on-demand, every part of Pink Gorilla will be done by us personally.
(The highest quality everything, minimalistic design. It will be terrific. Keep you updated.)
The idea evolved over the last six months and is still evolving to this day.
I feel blessed that I can share this experience with you, and demonstrate how ideas evolve over time. It's a beautiful thing. The art of creating something that wasn't there before.
It takes time, energy and hard work.
It takes defeating the inner enemy of Resistance that will stop at NOTHING until it has defeated all of your dreams.
However...what is the alternative?
Yeah. Exactly.
Now, tell me in the comments what idea are you excited about?