The only thing drawing retail buyers to my tradeshow booth was a giant glass jar filled with my glowing miniature lights, and the water inside it was turning brown.

And it was happening FAST.

If I couldn't fix it, I'd lose the one display that was pulling people in, and I'd spent months preparing for this event.

Let me back up, because this tradeshow was about the last place on earth I'd want to be.

I'd much rather be building something or off hiking in the mountains.

I don't really like socializing on a large scale, and although a beer (or two) sometimes helps, that was definitely not an option here.

Sales is definitely not my cup of tea either.

Yet here I was, spending three days pitching my product to hundreds of strangers.

But I did it anyway, because I was willing to do whatever it took.

My product was a cheap item that only made sense in retail stores, so big tradeshows were one of my few options to get in front of buyers.

The first few hours were brutal.

I was sweaty, my hands were clammy, and I was in one of the most uncomfortable situations of my life.

But something strange happened, because people were actually crowding my booth.

Other exhibitors nearby told me they were jealous of how much attention I was getting.

The booth next to me had a famous actor helping pitch their product, so the competition was stiff.

But I was holding my own against Ed Begley Jr., and that felt pretty good.

I heard Mark Wahlberg was at some other booth somewhere too, though I never saw him.

I didn't have any famous people working my booth. It was just me and one person I hired for the week.

Then I noticed the water.

At first I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but no, the color was shifting and it was getting worse by the minute.

This was the last thing I needed while already stressed out of my mind.

It turned out a tiny spring inside my product wasn't stainless steel, and it was rusting.

I'd tested individual units in water plenty of times and never noticed a problem.

But with dozens of lights submerged together, all of them turned on, the batteries were leaking a small electric current into the water, which sped up a chemical reaction called electrolysis that made the springs rust way faster than normal.

Yeah... I definitely didn't think of that ahead of time.

I had two options:

Shut down the display and lose the biggest thing drawing people to my booth... or figure out a way to keep it running.

So I did the only thing I could, and changed the water every couple of hours.

The glass jar was massive and ridiculously heavy when full.

Every time the water started turning brown, I had to drain it into another container to lighten the load, haul the whole thing to the bathroom, rinse everything clean, carry it back, and refill it.

Exhausting, time-consuming, and a complete pain in the... back.

But I kept doing it, because the people walking by didn't see any of that struggle.

They just saw an eye-catching display that made them stop and ask questions.

By the second day, I'd settled in and the sweaty hands were mostly gone.

But each night I couldn't wait to get back to my hotel room, hide away, and order room service.

I didn't want to talk to anyone except my wife on the phone, didn't want to see another person, and just wanted to disappear for a few hours to recharge.

Then I woke up the next morning and did it all over again.

Most people think building a product is mostly engineering.

It's not.

A huge chunk of it is being willing to step outside of what's comfortable when your product needs you to, whether that's talking to strangers about your idea, solving problems on the fly, or just showing up again the next day when you'd rather not.

Your customers and partners will never see any of that mess.

They'll only see someone who showed up and made it work.

And that's what success actually looks like most of the time, not glamorous, not comfortable, but persistent.

Cheers,

John Teel
Founder / Lead Engineer
Predictable Designs