Twenty companies said no to Chester Carlson, including both IBM and General Electric. He'd invented the photocopier in 1938 and spent the next nine years trying to convince people of its value.
He kept building anyway. No funding round. No applause. Just years of showing up for work nobody else believed in yet.
The company that finally said yes wasn't an obvious partner. Haloid was a small photo paper business trying to survive in Eastman Kodak's shadow. We all know the name Kodak. Very few might know the name Haloid. Betting on Carlson's invention had nothing to do with their business at the time. It was a gamble on something completely outside their lane.
They didn't even take the name right away. It took over a decade for Haloid to become Haloid Xerox, then simply Xerox. The company grew into its own name only after the work proved itself.
That bet eventually did become one of the most recognized names in the world. Within two decades, the machine sat in nearly every office.
Nine years is a long time to keep believing in something everyone else has dismissed. What's kept you building through the part where no one's noticed yet?
