Braunability! Inspirational thoughts on how to build a multimillion dollar company by solving your own difficulties. (Ralph Braun #2)
Imagine a Solution
What do you dream about? Do you imagine large mansions, beautiful cars, exotic vacations, and vast wealth? Ralph Braun grew up on a poor farm surrounded by farm equipment. Mechanical equipment was ingrained in his DNA, and I believe his dreams were of lawn mowers and Jeep mail trucks-not just any lawn mowers and Jeeps, but ones that could be transformed and converted into mobility.
Growing up in rural Indiana, Ralph Braun was frustrated with his inability to access the life that mainstream society had to offer, so he imagined a solution to his limited mobility. He converted a riding lawn mower into the world’s first scooter. He used his homemade scooter to get back and forth to work for years until the factory where he worked moved beyond its range.
At that point, the dream needed to get bigger, a whole lot bigger. The problem was not how to get around the house, yard, or even a mile away, but how to get miles down the road to where his factory job had moved. Braun acknowledges, “As the months wore on and the weather got worse, I started to panic. Just when I thought all hope was lost, I got an idea: if I had a vehicle that has enough space inside so I could ride my scooter right up into it and then drive while sitting on my scooter-I thought if I hooked up some hand controls, I could apply the gas and brake when I wanted to; I [could] operate the vehicle all by myself.”
Using his mechanical mind and natural engineering instincts, Braun started sizing up potential vehicles that would accommodate his scooter inside. After finding an old Jeep mail truck, the question was how to get the scooter into the truck. He came up with the concept of using a lift. He developed and modified the first truck with a lift that could be driven without transferring off of his scooter into a driver seat.
This had never been done before. Prior to that moment, no one who was unable to get themselves out of a wheelchair or scooter, was able to drive a vehicle.
In his book Rise Above, Braun acknowledges how his difficulty was turned into an opportunity for himself and many others:
The necessity of finding reliable mobility led me to create an invention and a company that changed my life and the lives of thousands of individuals worldwide. In many ways, my “disability” led to one valuable “ ability,” knowing firsthand the frustration of having your independence held back because society doesn’t think you deserve an invitation to the party.
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