RULE 13 Accept That Genius Without Ego Is Impossible

That was the curt assessment of King Camp Gillette, founder of the Gillette shaving empire. Gillette was a traveling salesman who decided, in 1895, that there had to be a better way to shave facial hair than holding a knife to your throat — or (even more intimidating) letting a total stranger hold a knife to your throat.

Despite assurances from the “experts” that mass production of the wafer-thin disposable blades he envisioned was impossible, Gillette worked for six long years to perfect the mechanics of the disposable shaving mechanism around which he planned to build an industry. Aided by his partner, William Nickerson, Gillette finally launched his new design in 1903. Sales in that first ...

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