Comments by "Christopher Conard" (@christopherconard2831) on "Ep. 34 The Legend of Malcolm Bricklin" video.

@grandicellichannel The GTO is what he's mostly remembered for during his time at GM. But his biggest contribution was introduced the idea of the option package. Prior to him you could either buy a car from the selection the dealership had, or order one. Ordering a car, then waiting a month or so was fairly common at the time. When you ordered a car you went down the option list a checked off what you wanted and it would be essentially custom built for you. He pointed out that the first gen Firebird had over 400 variations for the dashboard alone. GM couldn't survive as a custom car builder. So he packaged the most common options. Then stacked them as increasingly higher trim levels. This is a much more efficient way to sell massive numbers of cars which saved GM, and other auto makers, millions a year.
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Most of us fail. The secret is to fail big. Look at how many people got a second or even third chance after pissing away millions of dollars during the Dot Com bubble and burst. The people who brought us the financial collapse of 2007/8 not only kept their jobs, but many were promoted. He also doesn't invest all of his own money. His Canadian car company was mostly paid for by the Canadian government (people).
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For another automotive dream/con (1% dream, 99% con) check out the Dale. It's an absolutely insane story that could have been shut down at any point if someone would have actually asked questions about the realistic chances of success.
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