While on a caving expedition, Carroll Bassett reached what seemed to be a dead end, but he then discovered a small hole in the rock with air rushing out of it, which indicates a large cavity on the other side. He had to turn back, but started pondering how he could reach the other side. He developed a cartridge that produced a fast-burning proprietary gas that created an explosion big enough to crack the rock wall. The explosives were small enough that no blasting permit was required.

At first, he had no intention of producing his invention, but soon all his neighbors were asking for his help to break up big rocks in their fields. He soon started selling to National Parks, gravediggers, contractors and mining companies. But his true innovation was recognizing the potential for the developing world.

Without an infrastructure of roadways, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to move goods throughout a country. Most often, developing countries just don’t have the resources to create roads. One major obstacle is clearing large rocks. If you can’t afford machinery to break up the rocks, which can cost over $60,000, the rocks need to be broken up by hand. But Bassett’s invention, the Micro-Blaster, costs only $375 and does the same work that $60,000 machines do.

With hopes of marketing to the developing world, Bassett has the chance to make a large impact on its ability to industrialize, and a chance to make quite a considerable profit while doing it.

Bassett created a solution for a very specific problem, but then realized the huge market potential his solution had. We all have had some unconventional solutions to specific problems, but often we only see one application for our idea. The key to success is recognizing all the different uses our ideas can have.

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