Benjamin Eisenstadt had a great, great idea. Serving sugar out of a bowl was such a pain! Not only is it unsanitary, it's wasteful! Why not put just the right amount of sugar... into a small single-use packet!

Fantastic idea, right? Well, Eisenstadt shopped it around to all the major players in the sugar business, who all laughed in his face. Behind his back, however, they had other thoughts, and soon sugar packets were everywhere... Which would have been great for Eisenstadt, but he forgot to file a patent. Oops.

So, Eisenstadt had another idea. This time, he would use his packets, but not for sugar. He cooked up a formula for a sugar substitute, and named it Sweet'n Low. Soon, the pink packets swept the nation. (There was that cancer scare which put a damper on things, but those studies proved to be faulty.)

Eisenstadt has passed on, but the company he founded still exists, distributing packets of Sweet'n Low, stevia, agave, and, yes, sugar. So, at the end he made out OK...

It would have been a better idea to file that patent.