Sometimes, our best ideas aren't the ones that catch on. I'm sure the fanny pack inventor also had a cure for cancer and the "creator" of the pet rock was also a rocket scientist. One of my dumb ideas that caught on was the Luchies Olympic Formula (LOF), which still lives on today.
Every two years, several weeks of my year are dedicated to watching the Olympics. I've been able to watch Usain Bolt set new records, Keri Strug land a nearly perfect vault on one leg to win the gymnastics gold for the U.S, Floyd Mayweather launch his boxing career, and Michael Phelps make swimming look cool. Whether the summer or winter games, I'm all-in.
As the competitive sports-loving fan that I am, I've always had one big problem with the Olympics -- there isn't a winner. There is no way of determining the country that "wins" the Olympics. There are overall medal counts, the country with the most gold medals, etc., but there is no official way of ranking the countries that participate in the Olympics.
Late one night in 2008, I thought I had a solution, and I named it the Luchies Olympic Formula. It wasn't even a formula, it was a very simple point system that awarded a country 5 points for a gold medal, 3 points for a silver medal, and 2 points for a bronze medal. The country with the most overall points would "win" that year's Olympics.
What I didn't know at the time was that there were already several ranking systems that existed although none were used by the IOC (International Olympic Committee). Luckily, my rubric was unique and not a copy of an existing scoring system.
I published the article and then didn't think much more about it until two years later.
As I was working on building my personal brand as a writer, I tracked articles that mentioned my last name. While doing some research, I ran into an article citing my LOF, and then another, and then another. Somehow, my dumb idea had been picked up by writers and outlets covering the Olympics.
While it's something silly that has no real validity, to some extent, I'm proud of my dumb idea. More than that, I'm opportunistic as to the impact that we can make with our writing and our ideas, whether about sports here on Scorum or something more important on a topic that could change the world.
I look forward to the next Olympic games so I can see some of the most amazing athletic achievements in the world, and to see my LOF appear again in a random article or two.
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