Yesterday I shared the George Foreman Grill‘s remarkable journey from rejected “Fajita Express” to billion-dollar empire.

But there’s something I maybe didn’t emphasize enough: the perseverance required.

Remember those inflatable Bozo the Clown Punching Bags from childhood? The ones with sand in the bottom that pop back up no matter how hard you hit them?

That’s what successful product makers often have to become.

In Rocky Balboa‘s immortal words:

“Life ain’t about how hard you can hit, it’s about how hard you can GET hit and keep moving forward.”

The Foreman Grill story isn’t simply a lucky QVC moment. It is really about a team that:

• Faced rejection at their first trade show
• Endured a disastrous holiday season where retailers wanted to return all inventory
• Pivoted multiple times with the product design
• Adjusted their marketing approach repeatedly
• Kept showing up and trying new stuff until they found what worked

But here’s the biggest difference between successful resilience and wasteful stubbornness: learning from every punch.

The Foreman Grill team didn’t absorb blows and stagger forward like Rocky Balboa. With each setback, they extracted valuable insights and made SPECIFIC changes:

1. They recognized misalignment with user needs – Enlarging the cooking surface from two burgers to four after realizing consumers wanted to cook for families, not just individuals.
2. They adapted their demonstration strategy – Moving from technical explanations to authentic usage scenarios showing real benefits.
3. They refined their messaging – Shifting from celebrity endorsement to family-centered cooking that resonated more deeply with buyers.

Action for today: Create your “Punch Response Protocol”

After your next product setback (which, let’s be honest, is coming for all of us), follow these three steps:

1. Document precisely what happened – Not just “it didn’t sell,” but specifics like “retailers complained about packaging size” or “customers struggled with the setup process.”
2. Extract the underlying insight – Now play my Why Game and ask “why?” at least three times to get to the root cause. “Customers struggled with setup” might actually mean “our assumption about technical knowledge was wrong.”
3. Make ONE measurable change – Resist the urge to overhaul everything. Choose the single highest-impact change you can implement quickly, then test again.

For the Foreman Grill, that ONE change was doubling the cooking surface — a modification that transformed its utility while preserving its core benefit.

Remember, worthwhile resilience is NOT being a perpetual punching bag like Rocky Balboa.

It’s bouncing back quickly, THEN using each hit to become smarter and more targeted with your next move.

Want to develop a Punch Response Protocol tailored to your product challenges? Tap that reply arrow and let’s discuss how to transform setbacks into stepping stones. Or reach out to my team of product marketing specialists at Graphos Product.