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. With Want to buy a napkin?
Back during the original 1990s Internet boom, when every billion-dollar idea had supposedly started with a sketch on the back of an envelope and/or in a garage, I used to joke that I was going to go into business selling envelopes and renting out space in huge office parks that consisted of acres of garages. Want be a Net millionaire? Rent a space in one of our garages, sit in in jotting ideas on the back of one of our envelopes, and riches are sure to follow. Etc.
I was reminded of this by an interview on Marketplace last night with a guy touting the power of napkins as the key to business creativity:
Why are napkins interesting? Because when you take a napkin and you just start drawing on it and start imagining what an idea that’s in your own mind looks like, all of the sudden, you’re opening up all kinds of channels in your own mind that, if you’re just working on a computer screen or just working with the shapes that are available, say, in PowerPoint, do not happen.
Etc.
What he’s doing is selling a book on this subject, but I think he should be selling the napkins. In fact I think this is a great idea for some Etsy seller: Really cool napkins to use in solving problems or dreaming up new business models. Or maybe that will be my next move for Murketing.com, maybe I’ll start making and selling branded napkins. If anybody wants to invest, let me know.
It’s been pointed out to me in the comments and via email that there is already a napkin-idea product on the market. And a napkin-marketing product, too.
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Kim Fellner's book 
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Reader Comments
But isn’t a product that constantly reminds you “Be Creative!” possibly self-defeating? It doesn’t seem to me that prodding leads to genius moments. For all the apocryphal tales of back-of-the-napkins inspirations, what I enjoy about the idea is that something quotidian — and not designed to serve as scratchpad — gets elevated to rare artefact by virtue of the words and drawings it holds.
Agreed on everyday things getting elevated to artifact status.
And of course I’m kidding about selling napkins. Unless it were essentially a satire, or at the very least a joke.
Already been done: http://www.napkinnotebook.com/
Hm. In that case the joke would be on me.