It’s 1955.
 
A dark factory corner. 
 
A giant band saw fires up, blades spinning, sharp enough to cut a man in two.Two men lift a great white block of iced fish on a conveyor.
 
They look at each other, nervous.
 
“You sure ‘bout this?”
 
“Boss says this how he wants it.”
 
Slowly they slide the great white block along the conveyor toward the fiercely
spinning saw.
 
The teeth bite. A whizzing, hissing sound.
 
They pull it back and take it from another angle.
 
And again. And again.
 
The two men look at what’s left, then at each other...  “Well. That’s how he wanted it. How they’re gonna sell I don’t know.”

This is a true story...  The factory was in Grimsby.
 
What they produced pushing those blocks of iced fish against a band saw came to
be known as fish fingers.
 
What's become a staple product – sold in the millions.
 
But how crazy would it have seemed in 1955 to pack a load of fish into a cube
and throw it against a band saw?
 
Who would have thought bits of fish reformed into an oblong would sell.
 
To most it would have seemed like madness.
 
But it was such ‘madness’ that produced a product that outlasted thousands of
others.
 
When your plane is delayed at the airport have you ever thought about chartering
your own plane and inviting the other passengers who are delayed with you?
 
Probably not, right? That would be madness.

But can you guess who did?
 
I’ll give you a clue. From that first chartered plane he built a company called
Virgin Airlines.
 
So, the moral?
 
Don’t be scared by seemingly mad ideas. Sometimes the most out-of-the-box
ideas are the ones that work, the ones that set you up and set you on the road to
untold profits...

In the name of wealth, happiness and success!
 

Pascale Barrow
Managing Editor of Personal & Finance Confidential