George Crum

George Crum

Everyone has created something or tried to invent something. You either failed at creating something or you succeeded. But all your creations are not original. If you think about it they really aren't. Everything you think of is an idea influenced by someone else's creation. The man who created something that is known as a delicacy in our country is George Crum. George Crum was the first man in the world to create a potato chip. Although, he got the idea by being influenced from someone else, his invention has the ingredient that is second in human consumption only to rice. This makes him a hero because of him a hero because his creation is now America's favorite snack food. What I am going to prove in this essay is that always be open to suggestions and failure. We tend to think of failure as a negative, but in reality it is a good thing because the more you fail, the more you succeed.

George Crum a.k.a "George Speck" was born and raised in Saratoga Lake, New York in the early 1800's. (1822 to be exact.) His reason for making this worldwide delicacy is simple. He was heckled by an angry customer. Crum was employed as a chef at a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York. One of the items on the menu at this restaurant were standard thick-cut potato chips prepared by George Crum. Back in those times French fries were very popular in their thick-cut size, which is one of the reason's Crum made them that way. One of the customers complained the Crum's French fries were "too thick". Angered by the customer's remark, George decided to make circle shaped potatoes cut paper-thin just to get the customer even more aggravated. He didn't expect it, but his plan totally backfired. The customer loved these "potato chips" and other customers were actually requesting him to make these for them. The importance of this creation in huge because of how many people consume potato chips a day, and how popular they are.

The event that was explained in paragraph 2 is what made George Crum gain his wisdom. Although he wasn't very open to suggestions, he wasn't afraid of failure. His failure made him create a worldwide delicacy. Think about it. If that customer never complained about the fries, and if Crum decided to keep his French fries the way they were, we would most likely not even know what potato chips are today. His role in this situation was to be an instigator, which turned out to be a great thing. The impact from this event on people was huge. Everyone in Saratoga wanted to try these "Potato crisps" or "Saratoga chips" which Crum called them. They became a massive hit.

Besides having an impact on everyone else, this event had huge impact on George Crum himself. Because of the event with the potato chips, he was confident with enough with the delicacy that he decided to open up his own restaurant featuring potato chips in a basket at every table. Crum definitely learned to be open to suggestions after the world-changing event with the picky customer. This also taught others to be open to failure and suggestions, because those type of people could have a very successful future.

The potato chip as we know it today is probably one of the biggest legacies left by George Crum in the world. His actions benefited almost 3/4 of the world's population and also benefited food creators after his time. In 1921 Wise and Utz started as potato chip companies. They were influenced by other companies before them which then impacted Herman Lay to be the founder of Lay's potato chip company. Lay's Potato Chips then became the world's first successfully marketed brand in the potato chip industry, and they are now the most popular potato chips in the world. So you see, George Crum influenced and impacted many people on the planet, including me. This impacted me because I am no longer afraid of failure and I am ready for it. You know why? Because you, me, or anyone in this world could be the next George Crum.