Sometimes, something happens when we're young that leaves an indelible impression. For me, one of those lasting memories came in a cereal box when I was 10 years old and living in Brooklyn, New York.
Quaker Oats was doing a promotion and they put deeds to one square inches of the Yukon in cereal boxes. It was the fantasy, the mystique of owning land in a faraway place that got to me. The promotion was for the show Sergeant Preston and the Royal Mounties and in the advertising and sales promotion communities, the Quaker Oats promotion was crowned the promotion of the century. The 20th century, anyway.
I never really knew exactly where the Yukon was, but I never totally forgot about the small piece of land I owned in that place. Years later, remembering that 5" x 7"* parchment paper-colored document, I was struck with an idea to give other people that same kind of thrill and create a new business for myself at the same time.
If one square inch of the Yukon was good, I came up with an idea, a concept, a business that is 50 times better... at least so I thought. Since I was never one not to put my money where my mouth was (or in this case my brain), I launched a venture that offers the chance to own one square inch of land in each and every state in the United States; in fact to own a piece of America, a piece of the American Dream - a Deed to the United States.
This was my dream. All I had to do was, well, actually do it! It was my chance to do what Quaker Oats did, only bigger and better. And with exactly 6.272,640 million inches in an acre and therefore 6.272,640 million deeds for sale, it also stood a good chance of making money, a lot of money. That is, if the idea took off.
If it didnt fly, then my 10 years of labor would have been for naught. After all, it took me that long to buy all the land...yes, one acre in each state (approximately...some more, some a tiny less), obtain title insurance on all the holdings, find and retain lawyers, submit my plan to the New York State Attorney General and, as a final effort to make sure that I wasn't running afoul of any laws, I submitted it all to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
As I look back upon all of this, I am thankful that my gift idea did fly...and in an international way too! Not only did it prove to be a lucrative venture, but since the Deeds to the United States have been sold in almost every country in the world, I had the opportunity to be a "goodwill ambassador" in China, a radio visitor to many far Eastern and European nations through the United States Information Agency's Voice of America network, the subject of magazine articles, many newspaper stories worldwide, and more recently, blogs.
END PART ONE
Future chapters will cover Advertising vs. Public Relations, Legal vs. wait and see, Sales Promotion vs. Advertising/PR, Marketing Your Product with Associates, Fulfillment of Orders, Processing Orders, and more. |
