A tear came to Bill Borges eyes as he looked at an old photo of himself. Borge, more famously known as the "Brawny Man" has been to the depths of hell and back again. "I didn't care back then," the man in plaid whispered before blowing his nose into the paper towel he created and turned into a multi-million dollar empire, "just look at my hair." Borge was talking about how the addiction that almost robbed him of his super-absorbent soul took over every aspect of his life, including personal hygene. "When your an addict, things like shaving your face and cutting your hair take a back seat to feeding your addiction."
Borge was a lumberjack in the pacific northwest when he had a flash of an idea that would turn into paper towels a short 3 years later. "When you're out there 'jackin at trees, it's pretty common for the guys to use stimulants to help them chop down the really big ones, I was just another one of those guys." For a while he kept his amphetamine use in control and it even helped him to come up with the then-unique concept of two-ply; now an industry standard.
"Yeah, that was all Bill Borge," Bobby Bounty said in an interview conducted over the phone, "there would be no 'Bounty' paper towels if it wasn't for Bill and his failure to patent his two-ply technology. We were on our last leg; our product just wasn't able to compete with a cloth towel."
When I asked Borge about not filing a patent, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "That's a mess I'll never be able to wipe up, not even with a thousand ply's." I reminded him that everything happens for a reason and he seemed to perk up. Clean now for 2 years, I asked him about his plans for the future. "I just take it one sheet at a time." he said with a voice twinged with wisdom gleaned out of near tragedy. "One sheet at a time." So, the next time you're standing in the paper towel aisle of your favorite store, take a little time to search out the Brawny man and give him a thumbs up. People may look at you a little funny but Bill Borge will appreciate it more than you know.
Borge was a lumberjack in the pacific northwest when he had a flash of an idea that would turn into paper towels a short 3 years later. "When you're out there 'jackin at trees, it's pretty common for the guys to use stimulants to help them chop down the really big ones, I was just another one of those guys." For a while he kept his amphetamine use in control and it even helped him to come up with the then-unique concept of two-ply; now an industry standard.
"Yeah, that was all Bill Borge," Bobby Bounty said in an interview conducted over the phone, "there would be no 'Bounty' paper towels if it wasn't for Bill and his failure to patent his two-ply technology. We were on our last leg; our product just wasn't able to compete with a cloth towel."
When I asked Borge about not filing a patent, he looked me straight in the eyes and said, "That's a mess I'll never be able to wipe up, not even with a thousand ply's." I reminded him that everything happens for a reason and he seemed to perk up. Clean now for 2 years, I asked him about his plans for the future. "I just take it one sheet at a time." he said with a voice twinged with wisdom gleaned out of near tragedy. "One sheet at a time." So, the next time you're standing in the paper towel aisle of your favorite store, take a little time to search out the Brawny man and give him a thumbs up. People may look at you a little funny but Bill Borge will appreciate it more than you know.
1 comment:
Thank you Grant for visiting us once again. When I saw the picture of Edward R. Murror, I knew that I had visited your blog previously. He was born in my home town of Greensboro, NC.
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