Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

At the beginning of a new year, you may be in the mode of jotting down some resolutions. If you are, and if one of your resolutions is about improving your finances, this article may be for you.

I was listening to my radio in the car yesterday (which I like to do because it's more interesting than just looking at my radio) and I was thinking about the possibility of earning a little more green this year and was considering all my options. Of course I could sign up with Amway or other MLM, but I think you have to sell your soul or something like that (it's complicated, lots of circles and lines). I considered delivering the Yellow Pages, but that only comes up twice a year and involves a lot of heavy lifting.

So I decided that I would go ahead and just invent something. You know, I could come up with a product that everybody wants, do an infomercial and then get placement on a Wal-Mart end cap. I was trying to think of something that would be easy to sell to Americans but that would be hard to prove whether it actually provides any value. At the moment I was on the verge of an epiphany, I heard a radio ad that nearly destroyed my dreams.

It was an ad for HeightMax, the supplement that helps people ages 12 to 25 reach their full height potential. I'm not sure how much it costs (that information doesn't seem to be on the web site), but it's a perfect idea for a gullible image-conscious society with more expendable cash than we know how to use. What I like about it is that there is absolutely no way to prove or disprove its effectiveness (unless you happen to have a time machine -- more on that later), but if you happen to market it at just the right time (say during puberty -- an age range that may include 12 to 25 year old people), you may just convince some people that the product actually enhanced their height potential or whatever.

At first I was disillusioned that someone had already taken my idea, but later this actually gave me a couple other ideas. First, someone could market AgeMax, an all-natural product designed to help people achieve their maximum age. This is similar to HeightMax in that you can charge whatever you want, there is a good market (think baby boomers) and there is no way to prove or disprove the effectiveness of the product.

I'm more of a technology guy though, so I was thinking about this: somebody could invent a time machine for the HeightMax company to use for clinical trials. See, to really sell a product on merit, you have to be able to show that your product works. What they could do is allow a group of 12 to 25 year-old subject to grow to their height naturally, record it for each individual, then take them back in time and provide them with their product and continue.

Does anyone have any good ideas on time travel (other than hiring Superman to fly around the world very quickly)?