1. Can Fried really say “no” to the big-box retailers? Why or why not?

Lance Fried is an electrical engineer who loves to design new products. He and a buddy were watching surfers and scenery at the beach near his home in Del Mar, California, when the buddy dropped his 20 Gig iPod into a cooler full of water and ice. The trashed iPod gave Fried an idea—to make an MP3 player that would work underwater.
Fried spent months tinkering with his invention, a waterproof MP3 player designed specifically for athletes who need tunes while surfing, swimming, waterskiing, or snowboarding. Like most all entrepreneurs, Fried had invested his personal savings but he had also somehow convinced half a dozen friends to work for him for free (pretty smooth).