Necessity Is the Mother of Invention

Got my new issue of Fast Company magazine yesterday (I'm down to just a few subscriptions but this publication is consistently one of my favorites) and the cover story is on The 100 Most Creative People in Business. I've barely begun reading it but I got to thinking about creativity (yet again) and how the future belongs to the innovators. Ya' want to give your community a boost of energy, do something new. Try something different. Expand minds. Think outside the box.

Here are two little examples of businesses I've seen in Dunwoody recently that caused me to do a double-take. One, Big Daddy Biscuits, whose 25-cent biscuit machine wins my totally unofficial award for "favorite thing in the world" for this week. Big Daddy Biscuits was started by a woman named Lauren and is named after her rescue dog named, yes, Big Daddy. Lauren lost her job and her dad died at about the same time and she found herself there with the dog, feeling lost, wondering what to do. And as most stories go, an idea was born, and now these all-natural and organic dog treats can be found not only around Atlanta but in the shopping baskets of celebs like Sly Stallone at a dog store in Los Angeles. (You can find them here in Dunwoody at the farmers market, wherever that happens to be located at the time you read this!).

The other example completely perplexed me. I was at the Kroger parking lot and there this car was. Advertising a businesses named My Sock Service. For sock subscriptions? Hmmm. What on earth . . . Sure enough, it turns out that apparently men are having trouble "completing their outfits" and basically hate their socks. They can now order U.S. made cotton calf and crew socks, cotton knee socks, merino wool socks, cashmere silk socks, and golf socks, delivered to their homes right here in Dunwoody.



And you thought there was a recession going on? Perhaps that's when new ideas flourish. You know the ole saying: Necessity is the mother of invention. Are dog biscuits and socks going to make our city more sustainable? Maybe not, but thinking about everyday things in a new way just might.