| My Marketplace Adventure |
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Future CEO Stars Magazine - February 2008 By David Kahl Jr.  My love of inventing began at an early age. One day when I was in kindergarten, I went fishing with my grandfather. The first hour was exciting, but soon I grew tired of just standing on the riverbank. So I said, "I could make a fishing pole stand that would hold my fishing rod." When I got home, I drew out my plan and began building. On one end of a 2x4 board, I cut a V-shaped groove. On the opposite end of the board, I attached a tent stake that would hold the board in the ground. I also attached a bell that would ring when a fish had grabbed the hook.A year later, I created "Car Find." When my parents left a shopping mall, they would frequently say, "Now where did we park the car?" I thought maybe a small colorful device could be attached to the car radio antennae so the car could be more easily located. With the help of my grandmother, I cut some large letter and animal shapes from wood about four inches in length and painted them bright colors. Then I drilled a hole on the bottom of each shape so that it would fit over the top of the car antennae. Yes, my parents were my first customers. In subsequent grades, I entered other inventions in our local Metro Inventors' Fair competition. I created a mailbox signal, a greeting-card organizer, a Wall of Fame book for parents, and a Kid Care book for day care providers. These inventions gave me the experience necessary to create my most successful invention: Better Letters, which led to my Marketplace adventure. Better Letters - A Complete Letter-Writing Kit for Kids led to the establishment of my own publishing company - Midland Instructional Creations. Better Letters was a kit that I create out of necessity. When I was in sixth grade, I would often want to write a thank you or a friendly letter, but I would spend countless minutes searching for paper, pens, pencils, etc. I thought there had to be a better way and perhaps I could package all the essentials into one complete kit. I made a prototype and used it in conducting a survey of students and parents. The survey did establish a need for the kit, so I contacted a manufacturer of plastic items to construct the kit to my specifications: the inside panels would have various vinyl pockets for the writing essentials such as paper, pens, stamps, envelopes, and addresses. While the kit was being constructed, I concentrated on writing of the instruction book, which would feature tips and advice on how to write better letters. My first success with Better Letters came when I was invited to display it at Marketplace for Entrepreneurs, an annual event held in North Dakota. It's an event designed to promote and encourage entrepreneurs of all ages to display and publicize their products, exchange ideas and explore new opportunities. This initial showing resulted in numerous orders, which led to multiple sales in the following years. Midland Instructional Creations became a successful business, and I was invited to speak at various shows and to talk to youth in the tri-state area about my experiences as a young entrepreneur. I am very grateful that Marketplace for Entrepreneurs and Marketplace for Kids provides children and adults with the opportunities to be creative, use their talents, invent, learn about the world of work and showcase the potential in our state of North Dakota. My adventure has been successful because of them. About the Author: David received a B.A. in Economics and Business from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN. He is currently a doctoral student in Communications at North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND and will graduate in the summer of 2008. |