I was going to blog about the health care (stuff) we've been watching unfold, what with the scare tactics coming from the agents of no-change, and with the President out on the trail, answering questions and attempting to correct all the misinformation being spread around like rancid butter.

But it pisses me off too much, so I'm not going to write on it right now. Besides, I might find that I'm just repeating myself. Someday I'll do a summary, when I have it all clear in my own head.

But not today.

I figured I'd do a lighter entry, one about the show I found myself watching last night, which I think is called "Shark Tank" or "The Sharks" or something along those lines. The reality show reminds me of "The Apprentice", with a panel of five investment capital providers (do they have a more proper name other than "sharks"? I think they probably do. Venture Capitalists? Something like that?) and entrepreneurs/inventors who come to them with their products and ideas and ask them to invest.

I thought it was a pretty interesting show, the half of it I watched. It was sort of instructional, to see what these sorts would be looking for, what issues they have with the proposals brought before them.

One interesting case was where a guy has invented a device that will force a driver and a passenger to be seat-belted in before they can start (or maybe drive) the car. It's an after-market device that costs a little over 200 bucks. The guy was doing it because his sister (I think) had been killed while not wearing her seat belt. It was a personal quest, almost, for him.

They wanted to know why he wasn't approaching the auto manufacturers or the big dealerships to get this thing put into cars at one of those points, because they felt that no one is going to go out to an after-market installer and pay 200 plus dollars to have it installed. I thought that was a very good point. I know I wouldn't pay to have it put into my car at this point.

The upshot was that that they declined to get involved at the cost of 500K for a 10 (or was it 20?) percent equity position in the company. But then it got interesting. One of the "sharks" offered him 500K for the patent, 100%, and no further involvement from this entrepreneur. (He said he didn't want to ever hear from the guy again.) Then another of them offered 1 million for the rights to the patent, and said that the guy could call him once.

The guy said, it wasn't all about the money for him, and he really wanted to see them put into cars. If they could guarantee him that they'd do that, he would consider it, but of course they couldn't do that. So he said no to their offers.

They felt that the only thing the guy actually had that was valuable was the patent, and that it was a great idea. So I was thinking: Would I sell my idea for a million dollars?

I guess it would depend on two things. First, am I just overflowing with great ideas? If I was, I'd take the money and use it to develop the next five ideas. If I wasn't, I might not be so quick to get rid of my one really good idea; I might try to hold onto some involvement with the idea.

Two, is it really in my head that the money doesn't matter, that getting my idea into practice was more important? Because if that was the case, then I'd have to evaluate: Where do I stand the best shot of getting this thing into general use? Is it by continuing to plod along with it myself, or is it by putting it in the hands of someone who wants to sell it to the auto makers and get it installed in all cars as standard equipment?

All I could think was, a million bucks is a lot of money to get for what amounts to intellectual property at this time.

In this guy's case, I think he should have counter offered again, give the guy an equal (or majority, even) stake in the company for the money, and then used the money to run with this as far as he could take it.