circa 1829: American Inventor, William Austin Burt, presents his typing machine. (Photo by Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images)
circa 1829: American Inventor, William Austin Burt, presents his typing machine. (Photo by Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images)
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There was a point in the late 1800s when someone suggested that the United States Patent Office would no longer be needed.

Every invention and great idea that could be thought of already had been thought of. This is as good as it’s going to get, they thought. Talk about out of touch.

The patent closing guy just didn’t understand the evolution of business products and services. Evolution is an undeniable process of life — especially in business.

Evolution of products is a reality that must be accepted before any advancement can be made. If you think it won’t get any better, guess what? — It won’t.

There is a “stepping store” process that will take you from one idea to the next. There are no quick fixes or short cuts. Everything will be done in order.

Look In The Sky

How many eons did man watch birds defy the laws of gravity? Wanting to know that feeling of soaring to unimaginable heights.

Looking at the stars and wondering if he was alone in the universe.

Something as simple as an eclipse terrified primitive people around the world. The thought of the sun suddenly disappearing must have been a frightening experience.

Yet today we not only cover the skies with “jet powered flying machines” but we’ve even gone to the moon and back. But none of it happened overnight.

There was an evolutionary process. Wright Brothers to “Top Gun.”

Sight and Sound

From cave drawings to Dolby 5.1 surround sound. Think of the evolution of cinema. We evolved from the first silent movies, to talking movies, to Technicolor, to surround sound, to TV, to Internet. All accomplished in a little more than 100 years.

About two lifetimes.

8-Track to CD

Somewhere in time a cave man thumped out a steady beat with a club on a hollow log and the rest, as they say, is history. Music was born.

Radios in automobiles used to be an option. Now you have Wi-Fi radio. Dial up any one of a thousand or more specialized channels. If you like Elvis you can hear him all day every day if that’s your taste.

We’ve gone from 8-tracks in the 60s to CD’s in 2000. Even the days of CD’s are probably numbered.

All your future music will be on demand from the cloud. What you want to hear, when you want to hear it, and all commercial free.

Some Final Thoughts

We’ve reached a point where anything that can be imagined can happen. What do you want?

How about a hologram where you can put yourself in TV shows in the middle of your living room in live action?

How would you like to play drums with the Beatles? Have a driverless car? Fly with your own backpack? Have a self-cleaning house?

Someday all of these things will become reality. But for each there is an evolutionary process that must be followed.

You can’t go from radio to CD’s without vinyl records, 8-tracks, cassette tapes in between.

You can’t have digital photography without the “Instamatic Camera” from Kodak or Polaroid getting there first.

There would be no cell phones without, “Breaker 1-9 this is the Bandit,” eluding Sheriff Buford T. Justice on his CB radio in the late 70s.

All improvements in products and services must, not should, but must, pass through this evolutionary process. There is no other way to advance any product or service.

So be patient. Your product is probably on someone’s drawing board right now.

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