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February 13, 2006
Dream the possible dream
I lived in Philadelphia during college, and regularly used the ATM outside a nearby bank. It was a quiet location late at night, and I was always a bit wary when using the ATM. When word spread of a student being held up at that machine and forced to enter their PIN, I decided to get my cash elsewhere.
I also started thinking about ways to improve security. I came up with the idea of letting users enter their PIN number backwards. Without stopping the transaction, the ATM could silently summon police, mark the surveillance footage for review, etc.
I liked my little idea, and, being of an entrepreneurial bent, I gave some thought to what I could do with it. My conclusion: nothing.
- The idea was too simple to have value. Saying it aloud communicated it completely, and I had nothing to add beyond that.
- Implementation would require changes in infrastructure that I could not mandate, and an education of the public that I could not accomplish.
- The benefit was too small. Not enough people are held up at ATM’s.
(In response to proposed legislation, the State of Illinois came up with lots of other reasons this is a weak idea.)
The problem with the entrepreneurial credo "Never give up on your dream!" is that everybody has stupid dreams. Entrepreneurial success is not about never giving up on any idea. Entrepreneurial success is about identifying a great idea that you are able to implement and then sticking with the hard work of execution.
Fortune Small Business has the story of Joseph Zingher, who came up with the PIN-number-backwards idea in 1994, patented it, and tried to turn it into a business. What did it get him? He is 47, broke, living with his brother, and ranting about the "brain-dead zombie" bankers he wishes were his customers. He has lowered the price for the first state to $0, and still has no takers. (Forbes has more on Zingher's quest.)
State legislatures may yet come to his rescue, but I still hurt (as a fellow-imaginer of the same idea) for Zingher and his wasted years. His idea is not a bad idea; it is just not a great idea. And more importantly, it is an idea the success of which can never be in his control: Zingher doesn't run a bank or manufacture ATM's.
Never give up on your dream. But dream something you can do, not something others would have to do for you. And dream something big enough to be worth the effort.
Posted by Bob Pritchett at February 13, 2006 04:00 AM
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Comments
Bob, I'm sorry to see you think it's the impossible dream. It sounds like sour grapes to me on your part. Please note, the reason that the legislatures are picking up on the idea is that the police have gone on public record in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, Illinois and Kansas saying it is necessary to stop these murders (which begin as carjackings from a parking lot some miles away or as home invasions.) Our offer of $0 is a pr stunt much the same as AOL offers its system for a free trial period. This leaves me free to charge the rest of the country. Josh's article was fair enough I guess, but what he left out was the police endorsement. Anyone who understands the situation knows that it won't go away until the murders stop. I got another 13 years on my patent. I can keep going a little while longer I think.
Posted by: Joe Zingher at March 8, 2006 02:16 PM
P.S. Bob, by the way, as you can see from the various newspaper stories about me (Google "Zingher ATM" you'll see that the IBM patent listed in the Forbes article didn't make the cut. The police and legislators aren't supporting them. That's because the patent originally referenced in that article is for a second CASH BOX for loading marked bills into. In the event that an emergency PIN is used, the ATM would dispense marked money. As Tom Kelner pointed out, their patent cited mine, thus, they were infringing on my territory, not the other way around. They were attempting to ride in my pocket, not the other way around. I attribute his conclusions to his lack of formal education in the law of patent. I'm not terribly impressed by the quality of Forbes or Fortune magazine's reporting, but you go right ahead keep relying on corporate media.
Posted by: Joe Zingher at March 8, 2006 02:22 PM
Bob,
One last comment, I noticed that your research was good enough to find the negative reports on me and my invention, but it missed the favorable reviews. I figured they should be added, for the sake of fairness, don’t you?
https://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060129/NEWS02/601290342/1123/ARCHIVES
https://www.kpho.com/Global/story.asp?S=1631880
https://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050609/NEWS0109/506090313/1013/NEWS
https://www.ericzorn.com/columns/2003/may/ (scroll down to May 13)
The most damaging information of course comes from the Illinois Office of Banks and Real Estate. The author of the report, David Rodriguez, esq testified that he relied upon the statements of another attorney, one who worked for an ATM transaction processor company in his conclusions about the system. Thought I was never personally contacted about the report and had no idea of its existence until long after it had been disseminated, it claims that my emergency PIN system would actually increase the number of kidnappings, thought obviously, this opinion is not shared by the police. It also claims some sort of “physical reconfiguration” or “hardware change” is necessary. Mr. Rodriguez claims not to be a software expert, but he’s quite sure this is correct, though technological advances may have changed that claim since it was first published. Personally, I have no idea what those changes might be, but, he’s sure they’re there. Mr. Rodriguez did not interview me prior to publishing the report, but when I learned of it two years later, I called him to discuss it. At that time, he wanted to talk to me in person, but not before. How strange. When I asked him what we would talk about, he said “Oh, we’ll find something to talk about.” I suppose what we should be talking about is the number of murder victims since he first filed that report. Inasmuch as the report is issued under the official auspices of the State of Illinois, it carries a great deal of weight. But, in reality, it’s just the word of a lawyer for the ATM industry under a bureaucrat’s byline. If anyone has any idea what this “hardware change” might be, please let me know. The alleged source of the claim denies having made it in the first place.
Posted by: Joe Zingher at March 14, 2006 06:28 AM
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