The Bold Ones: Innovate and Disrupt to Become Truly Indispensable

CONCLUSION

In 1893, Samuel Zemurray, a teenage Russian Jewish immigrant, stumbled across a yellowish gold mine in the United States. More accurately, he stumbled across a yellowish fruit. If you want to get truly exact, he stumbled across a yellowish fruit with two dots that was “ripe.”

You probably think of “ripe” as meaning “good to eat.” You’d be correct. However, “ripe” in the 1890s also meant that it was only days from being spoiled. Bananas—not native to the United States—that arrived on the docks with two or more freckles would be thrown into the ripe pile to be destroyed.

Zemurray had an idea—if he could buy those ripe bananas on the cheap, hop on a train, and sell them quickly before they truly spoiled, he could turn a profit. He negotiated ...