My Pillow Garage Greatness Header

Garage Greatness: The Humble Origins of MyPillow

Bywittycow

There’s an old adage – anything that separates you from the ground is worth spending money on. It goes for good quality shoes, it goes for good quality mattresses, and – on a related note – it goes for a comfortable pillow! Everyone knows the hotel room struggle of trying different pillows and combinations of pillows, trying to find the one with the perfect mixture of firmness and softness, but for most people this hunt isn’t inspiring. For a certain kind of entrepreneurial spirit, however, any hardship is inspiring. Mike Lindell has just that spirit. 

Lindell tried everything to create the life he wanted for his family through an increasingly bizarre list of business ventures. In 2004, he finally found the million-dollar-idea – or to be more accurate, the multi-million-dollar-idea! MyPillow, a company that he begun in his residential home’s garage, has now sold over 30 MILLION pillows! Before he was the king of pillows, however, Lindell’s life followed a rocky path through business failures and drug addiction. In spite of this adversity, his drive never faltered, and Lindell has made a successful company out of humble beginnings in the family garage. 

Garage Greatness Dell Company Origin Founding

The Rise and Fall of Dell, Inc

Bywittycow

There are very few consistent details between all of the companies that we’ve featured on Garage Greatness. Sometimes, the people responsible for these international powerhouse companies don’t pursue their passion until later in life. Sometimes, they spend years or decades toiling with their idea before finding worldwide success. Sometimes, these companies are momentary successes that then see their sales decline, dropping in popularity as time passes them by. None of these are true about the company we’ll be examining today, Dell Inc. Dell had a mercurial rise to success, going from an unknown name with $1,000 of startup money to being the 51st company in the Fortune 500 list in 2014. And just like the rest of the companies that we’ve covered, Dell got their start in a garage. The year was 1984, the place was Austin, Texas, and the mind behind the company, Michael Dell, wanted to fill an expanding niche in the consumer computers market.

Cat Flap Garage Greatness Kitty Kitten Cute

Inventing the Cat Flap: Newton or Not?

Bywittycow

Hello readers! On this installment of Garage Greatness, we’re going to be exploring the dubious claim that Isaac Newton himself invented the cat door while in the garage! Although this claim is interesting and would certainly make for a good story, many people doubt that it is true, so we will also be discussing the other potential origins of the cat door. Having specialized doors for your pets is a very old idea, and tracking the exact origin is difficult, but we have done our best to verify the information we’re bringing you. We bring the same reliable and dependable service to our blog that we bring to our residential and commercial garage door installation and repair services.

Etch A Sketch Header Garage Greatness

Etch A Sketch: The Timeless Toy

Bywittycow

There are certain timeless toys that are universally associated with childhood – dolls, action figures, building blocks, and so on – but there is one common toy that very few users understand. The enigmatic Etch A Sketch has an elegant design and has remained mostly unchanged for over fifty years, but the simple secret behind its magical erasable screen is not the ultimate reason for the toy’s success. The real reason that the Etch A Sketch has remained an unchanging cultural icon for the better part of a century is that it appeals to children of every background, of every level of artistic aptitude. The Etch A Sketch is an icon, and like many other great icons that we’ve explored on Garage Greatness, it was first invented in a garage.

Microsoft Garage Greatness Bill Gates Header

Richest Man Alive

Bywittycow

There are only a few names that are as synonymous with an industry as Microsoft is with personal use software. Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office are two of the most widely used pieces of software in the world, and for years Windows was the undisputed king of operating systems – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and other Office softwares are still the most widely-used solution in their respective fields, with consistent usage by school-aged children and business owners alike. But Microsoft, like many other great companies, comes from humble origins. Bill Gates, the single man most responsible for Microsoft’s success and the wealthiest person in the world, built Microsoft to capitalize upon the success of his early forays into software development. Today, Microsoft is a household name across the world, but at the beginning of this story, Microsoft’s founders were meeting in a California garage for the first meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club.

Fall DIY Craft Project Do It Yourself
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Fall DIY Crafts!

Bywittycow

It is the season for pumpkins and apple cider, scary story and monsters, and also the season for a whole bushel of simple craft projects! We’ve created a list of some of our favorites over on our pintrest page, and if you’re looking for a way to decorate your home on a budget or just a way to stretch your creative muscles with a little project, we’ve got something perfect for you!

Harley-Davidson: American Excellence

Harley-Davidson: American Excellence

Bywittycow

Garages are notoriously loud, since hobbyist mechanics and garage bands tend to use the garage specifically for making noise. With a private workshop sectioned off from the rest of the house, these backyard innovators had all the space (and muffling walls) they needed to practice their craft without disturbing their family. Of course, some garage inventors want to make noise, like the Davidson brothers and their friend William S. Harvey. These four inventors, all born before 1882, tinkered in a shed behind their friend’s property and ended up inventing a product that would revolutionize American roads and become one of the most iconic examples of any industry – The Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Nest Learning Thermostat Smart Home

Garage Greatness: Building Your Own Nest

Bywittycow

How often do you adjust your home thermostat? Many thermostats are outdated eyesores, installed by contractors who are more interested in getting the lowest possible bid than they are in the comfort of their home’s future inhabitants. Also, most homeowners use their thermostat in an inefficient way, and since home temperature control accounts for as much as 10% of total energy usage in the US, even just slightly wasteful habits can mean hundreds of dollars of cost for each household – hundreds of millions, across the country. Tony Fadell is the man behind Nest, the smart thermostat that is designed to solve these problems, and he is more qualified than anyone to create cutting edge technology: before he was prototyping a thermostat in a Palo Alto garage, he was creating the iPod and iPhone at his previous executive position with Apple.

Alexander Graham Bell Garage Door Phone Invention

Ring a Bell: Alexander Graham Bell Invents the Telephone

Bywittycow

Alexander Graham Bell lived from 1847 until 1922, and in those years he had a remarkable life of innovation and advocacy. He is best known for being the first person to patent a practical telephone, one of the greatest innovations to human communication of all time, but in his life Bell also addressed many other areas of interest to him, mostly regarding deafness and elocution. Bell’s legacy shaped human history and his inventions were critical to the continuing progress of technology, but what is commonly forgotten about his work is that he got his start in the garage – or, to be more accurate, the carriage house!