Get Rich Quick

I know people who are intrigued by the thought of inventing something that is going to bring them instant financial gain. I have read about people who have done that. Oprah has had them as guests on her show. It happens.

I am a Lockergnome junky. Chris Pirillo got his start in Des Moines, Iowa, practically a neighbor. I love it when youngsters do well. Look at Bill Gates. This odd article in this morning's "Lockergnome's Tech News Watch" is about somebody's lightbulb idea. It is all laid out for the artist aspiring to get rich with original artwork. The hook is the artwork must be submitted in a little box the size of a pack of cigarrettes; if accepted for distribution one must make 50 little artworks in 50 little boxes and can expect $2.00 to $2.50 on consignment for each one sold.

I know people who could do this. I could do this. Once I watercolored 50 little Christmas cards, it was fun, they were all the same. Do I want to spend my days watercoloring little cards and putting them in little boxes to be vended out like cigarettes all over the world. What if they sold like hotcakes, or worse yet cigarrettes, and the demand increased until I had to stay up late at night watercoloring more and sending them off 50 boxes at a time. Would I really get rich, and would I want to become a slave to this little endeavor?

The idea intrigues me. It is a little bit creative and a lot enterprise, the American way. A dream that would soon turn into drudgery, a slave concept. My kitchen table would be filled with little boxes and watercolor sets, glasses of murky water, no dinner ever and never on placemats, properly set. It would immediately turn into a disaster. People would be clammering for my little box. I would soon tire of the demand. It would snowball out of control.

But it would be better than babysitting. This sounds better. We all love the sound of cellophane.