Why the Zamboni Company's Story Is My Favorite One I've Ever Gotten To Share
Most everyone has heard of them... but too few people know their inspiring company history.
The Zamboni Company is so famous, even Charles Schultz featured them in his Charlie Brown comic strip–50 times! Of course, it was Charlie Brown himself who said it best: “There are three things in life that people like to stare at: a flowing stream, a crackling fire, and a Zamboni clearing the ice.”
But how many people know the history of the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine?
Did you know it was invented in California? By a guy who owned an ice rink? Who wanted to save a bunch of time, expense, and manual labor it used to take to fix up the surface of the ice?
Did you know some of the early models were built from surplus US Army jeeps that were cheap and plentiful in the wake of WWII?
Did you know it’s still a family company after all these years? (They’re now into their fourth generation of family members working there.)
No, you probably didn’t. And that’s despite the ongoing efforts by folks at the company to share their story widely.
As I said in my title of the Forbes article I wrote about the company a few years ago, “There’s So Much More to the Zamboni Story Than You Ever Imagined.” (You can read the whole thing right here.)
The most important thing, though, is the fact that Frank Zamboni had a problem and solved it with sheer inventiveness and tenacity, and realized that if he had that problem as an ice rink owner, then so did a whole lot of other people.
I’m admittedly biased, but that’s one of the best examples I’ve found of why I think manufacturing companies have the very best stories to tell. Unlike the Zamboni Company, though, a great many of them just aren’t too hot at sharing their stories effectively. Yet just like the Zamboni Company, they have absolutely wonderful people who love to help anyone wanting to assist them in sharing those stories.
That’s why I love what I do.
Need help sharing your own inspiring story? Give me a holler.