Page 13 - Free the Idea Monkey

At this point things started to veer from Larry’s unplanned plan.
Inspiration I rose rapidly to 16,000 feet—that’s more than three miles
above the earth. He was too afraid to shoot a balloon because he
thought he might unbalance the chair and fall out.

His chair soon floated through the primary approach corridor
of Long Beach Airport, causing pilots to question whether they were
losing their minds as they looked at a guy with a six-pack and a pel-
let gun float by in what appeared to be a lawn chair.

After 45 minutes in the sky, he got up the nerve to shoot several
balloons, but then accidentally dropped his pellet gun overboard.
Whoopsy!

Eventually the balloons lost enough helium so that his space-
craft descended far enough to become entangled in Long Beach
power lines, which caused a neighborhood blackout for 20 minutes.
Whoopsy 2!

Larry climbed down to the ground where he was arrested and
fined $4,000 for violating federal aviation regulations. He received
the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas as well as an honor-
able mention in the Darwin Awards (“Honoring those who improve
the species ... by accidentally removing themselves from it!”).

Frankly, he was lucky to be alive.
When I first heard it, I found the story of Larry Walters’ adven-
ture incredibly amusing. What a knucklehead. But as I was writing
this book, something occurred to me that made my skin crawl.

I AM LARRY WALTERS AND, PERHAPS, SO ARE YOU
Like most entrepreneurs, I have lots of ideas. But like Larry’s, my

ideas are not always considered practical by the poor souls who will
have to actually execute them.

Some people, like me, keep their ideas to themselves, which is
sad. Some go off half-cocked and crash their businesses or their
lives—which is even sadder.

Then there are the Idea Monkeys like you and me who have dis-
covered that we aren’t all that great at this “channeling ideas” thing.
We need some help, and this book was written to provide it.