Sunday morning here has bloomed with a beautifully sunny day here in New York, and I have the extreme fortune to view it from a pretty high floor in a building overlooking Manhattan. It’s with much hope and wonder that Giants fans (myself included) will watch Super Bowl XLII with the chance for the team who noone really expect much out of (the Giants) play the team vying for the title of the best team ever (the Patriots). But that’s not until 6:30p ET, and it’s 12:30, and I wanted to avoid the 87 hours of pregame show (I’ll limit myself to the 2 or the so directly before the game).
And so my search for TV ended up, so often as it does, on the History Channel – where they are running a marathon of American Eats where they’ve now gone into the history of chocolate in America.
And so, it got me thinking – how do innovations like the Milk Chocolate candy bar (Hershey’s), the M&M bar (Mars), and the competition between them translate to the information age? Is it possible for run away products to be created that have such a lasting impact? What will eBay, Google, or even Etsy be in 50 years?
This is, after all, what excites me about this business – the chance to be part of something better than me, and to contribute to something that people understand, enjoy and make a part of their lives. And, I’ve had the chance to do that a few times already, and genuinely hope I will continue to be parts of teams that do big things. So I am inspired by the chocolate makers of the past….
And then I go back to thinking about nachos.