In his book,  "The Frozen Water Trade" the author Gavin Weightman tells the story of Fredic Tudor, a 19th century Bostonian who came up with the idea of shipping ice from his hometown of Boston to the Caribbean, South America and ultimately India. Of course, in the early 1800s his friends and neighbors thought he was insane. But Tudor persevered over the next few decades, through debtor’s prison, technical challenges, warm weather, pirates, crooked business partners and even yellow fever to create an entirely new industry and a great deal of personal wealth.

The lesson of this book is to look at those things we take for granted or consider by-products of something else, and to see how they could add value to others. Ultimately, Tudor was in the service business. Mother Nature manufactured his product without any capital or management required. He didn’t need to enhance or modify it in any way. He simply needed to harvest it, and find a way to keep the ice cold enough so that he could deliver it to warmer climates before it melted back into New England lake water.
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