Several years ago, barber John Campbell was sitting on his sofa in Starkville in the wee hours. If the sun had been up, one might have said he was daydreaming. He’s done a lot of that since he was 4 years old, he says, pointing toward the framed patents that hang on his wall today.

“It was about 3 a.m., and I started staring at the door for some reason,” Campbell recalls. His preoccupation wasn’t aimless. Campbell was mentally sifting through ideas for fortifying the door, improving its resistance to intrusion. Not that he’d had a break-in; it’s simply that the part of John Campbell that is an inventor is always searching for innovation. His fascination with the door in those predawn hours started him down a path, one most entrepreneurs might call an opportunity of a lifetime.

On June 13, Campbell got to pitch his Bumper Door Block security device to some of the most influential buyers in the world of retail. He was one of about 500 people selected to present their products at the fifth annual Walmart Open Call event at the multinational corporation’s headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

“There were 500 people there trying to do what I was trying to do,” Campbell says of the exciting experience, complete with talks from Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, Walmart President and CEO Greg Foran and chief merchandising officers. Attendees also went to supplier mentoring sessions. Most important of all, each entrepreneur was allotted 30 minutes to meet with buyers in hopes of getting their product on store shelves. It’s part of the retailer’s 2013 pledge to buy an additional $250 billion in products that support U.S. manufacturing over a 10-year period.

Campbell felt lucky and blessed to be there with his latest innovation.

An effective idea

Campbell’s solid steel door block takes seconds to engage, making doors in homes, schools or businesses virtually impossible to open from the outside, he says. The inventor is convinced it could save lives.

Initial installation only requires drilling a 1 and 5/8-inch hole in any wood or concrete floor at the base of the door. A pin welded to the bottom of the block keeps it in place against pressure. A plug Campbell is finalizing would cover the drilled hole when the block is not engaged.

In home use, the block could be set in place at entry doors before families turn in at night.

“And in schools, instead of giving teachers guns, give them a door block. (An intruder) cannot get in the room,” Campbell says. “Time is a factor.”

On Wednesday, in the classroom of the Golden Triangle Barber College he founded in 2016 in Oktibbeha County, Campbell demonstrated how it should generally take a teacher, upon receiving an intercom or electronic alert to barricade doors, about 15 seconds in an average-size room to get the block in place.

“I even had it sent off for (wind) testing, and it kept doors closed up to a Category 4 hurricane,” the inventor says.

Next steps

Campbell got a positive response at his Open Call presentation. The green light means he has much to tackle, including seeking financing, meeting requirements for liability insurance and setting up production.

“I’m going to need steel cutters and welders,” explains Campbell, who hopes to collaborate with East Mississippi Community College. “Even on a small scale, I think I’ll need 10 to 20 people, and I hope that in a year, that will really expand.”

Open Call buyers suggested a few changes to Campbell’s product packaging and labeling, tweaks he immediately made and got approved. He’s eager to move on to the next steps. There are plenty of them.

“If you slap a gorilla, you’d better be able to take him out. I need help to take him out,” he grins. “I’ve got to manufacture this product right now, and I’m crazy enough to say it’s gonna happen.”

Persistence

Campbell has a long history of facing challenges and producing ideas. As a child growing up in a Delta sharecropping family in the early 1950s, “We weren’t poor — we were po’!” he says.

He knew early on he wanted to be a barber, practicing on dogs and cats with old-fashioned shears when he couldn’t get his siblings to cooperate. Today he operates the barber college, but the journey has been diverse and colorful. In earlier years, he did some boxing and taught tennis. He was a brother to the late blues singer Little Milton. He’s a writer, indie filmmaker, business owner and ordained minister.

In the process of inventing his Shaver’s Choice compound for African-American men — a product he marketed on QVC — he had to become part chemist. In designing other patented ideas for door locks and storm-safe bunker beds, he acquired engineering skills.

“I can be in a deep sleep and wake up with my feet hitting the floor, headed to draw,” he says. “If you keep all your ideas locked up in your head, when you’re dead, guess what? Hmmm.”

Walls at the barber college are filled with awards and recognition. Among them is a 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Mississippi Board of Barber Examiners, a board he served on for more than a decade. It hangs next to a 2013 service award from the Oktibbeha County Economic Development Authority, which he also served on. An impressive trophy honors Campell’s 2011 Indie Film Fest Award for his short documentary “Daydreaming on My Cotton Sack.” It’s based on one of the three books he’s written.

“I love to visualize things and try to transform my dreams into reality,” says Campbell. “I never gave in to ridicule from anyone.”

His intense focus now is on working toward getting the Bumper Door Block in production.

“There is a need for it — this little device could save people’s lives,” he says. “People say all the inventors are dead …. no, they’re not. Don’t give up on your dreams — they can come true.”

Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.

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