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1054 : STEP TWO – GENERATING NEW IDEAS

A lesser man would have been crushed by the fate of the first six
prototypes which resulted from Head’s right-brain doodles on his
drawing board. The professional ski instructors at Vermont managed to
break all the skis within the hour. Undaunted, Head took $6,000 in poker
winnings from under his bed to fund development work in earnest,
becoming in the process an early exemplar of so-called ‘bootstrap
financing’ – launching ventures with modest personal funds.

a lesser man would have been crushed by
the fate of the first six prototypes

Exhibiting the persistence required of every successful entrepreneur
which we identified in Chapter 1, Head persevered for two more years
through 40 different designs. Each time he completed a pair of skis, he
sent them immediately to professional ski instructor Neil Robinson, who
trialled them on the slopes, broke them and sent them back. Each time,
Head worked out why the ski had broken and made appropriate changes.

By 1951, Head had created an aluminium ski which had a plywood core
for strength, steel edges for turning and a plastic running surface which
slid easily over most snow surfaces and took wax well. Not only did the
ski not break, it also delivered such outstandingly forgiving performance
that the public soon dubbed it ‘the cheater’, acknowledging that even
novice skiers could carve through turns with little effort. The Head ski
transformed the sport from one for very skilled athletes to one capable
of mastery by millions.

Having sold Head Ski Company, Head went into supposed retirement
and took up tennis. He was as inept at tennis as he had been at skiing.
Legend has it that his professional coach became so tired of being
blamed for Head’s shortcomings that he suggested Head should buy a
tennis ball machine to practise against. Head duly made the purchase
from the Prince manufacturing organisation and took delivery of the
machine, only to find that its performance was as lamentable as his
own. Acting on the realisation that his gift lay in debugging and
perfecting pieces of equipment, Head swiftly joined Prince as chairman
of the board and acting chief engineer.

Head was a great exponent of the ‘Why?’ technique, continually asking
the Prince engineers ‘Why?’ when they claimed that something would
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