Innovation is all around us. From the light bulb above our heads to the carpet below our feet, everything started off as an idea in someone’s head and then developed through an innovative process to become the common things they are today.
Recently, I’ve begun watching the show Shark Tank on ABC. Every episode, different entrepreneurs appear in a front of a panel of potential investors, known as sharks, hoping to land a deal on their businesses and/or products. Although I’m not really aspiring to be an entrepreneur in the future, I’ve always had some interest in the business and entrepreneurial fields. When I learned from a friend that such a show like Shark Tank existed, I immediately decided to watch it. After just one episode, I was hooked.
Shark Tank was not only a show where I could learn more about investments and how to negotiate business deals all while watching a bunch of rich, old people fight over great products, but it offered some of the most innovative products and ideas I had ever seen. I was immediately able to relate to all the innovative things I saw on Shark Tank, as our English class had been doing the same thing with our year-long Innovation/Idea-Farming Project, finding and coming up with innovative ideas and projects to help address certain needs throughout our local community or the world. (Of course, the products/ideas I saw on Shark Tank were a lot better and more complex than the ones we were doing in our class, but they both came from the idea of trying to solve a problem or fill a need in this world.)
Some of the coolest products I’ve seen presented on Shark Tank include:
- Mission Belt, a belt that does not use any holes to secure it (profits used to fight hunger and poverty throughout the world)
- Breathometer, a breathalyzer that plugs into your iPhone
- Define Bottle, a beautifully designed, eco-friendly water bottle that allow you to infuse your water with fruit
- Revolights, a bike lighting system that provides 360 visibility and actual headlights/brakelights
- Pursecase, a stylish purse/phone-case all in one
- Boo Boo Goo, a paint on band-aid to protect/camouflage your “boo boos”
Overall, Shark Tank is an amazing show that offers people a look into some of the coolest, most innovative new products and businesses out there. The whole idea of innovation behind many of these products and the many problems/needs that it helps to solve and fulfill in this world makes it one of the most interesting, captivating shows out there. It really boosts up the idea that innovation can help to improve our world, all while watching numerous entrepreneurs fulfill their American dreams. As Lori Greiner, one of the sharks on the show, said on one episode, “It only takes one good idea to make a difference in the world.” Who knows? Maybe one of the things we seen on Shark Tank will eventually change our world in some way.
A Hard Dose of Reality and a Slice of Fantasy 