Reyn Guyer had enjoyed success as the inventor of the game Twister. In 1968, he used the success of Twister to start Windsor Concepts, which was a company dedicated to designing new toy and game ideas. While working on a caveman themed game, a team member began bouncing a foam rock over a net. With that, they knew they were on to something and started designing more games with foam balls. They took the games they had designed to Milton Bradley, the company that had produced Twister, but they passed on the games. Reyn and his partner were not deterred and took their games to Parker Brothers.
While Parker Brothers didn’t love the actual games, they liked the idea of a foam ball kids could play with safely indoors. The Nerf ball became a hit and they started designing other things like the Nerf football. They then produced a toy gun that would shoot Nerf balls and continued to expand the armory selection after that. Guyer took the opportunity to build on the success of Twister to launch Nerf which took some guts.
It can take a lot of courage to pursue a different career path or follow a new opportunity but doing so can lead to incredible success and fulfillment. It is important to take the time to think about the opportunities for our life or the opportunities for our life, then have the courage to act on those moments.