Recently there was a special tour in Inventionland for a Carnegie Mellon professor who designs workspaces and studies the behavioral effects of the work environment on the employee. It was amazing to see his reaction to our design space. He was so inspired that that he invited me to experience something new and interesting at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center.

I had no idea what to expect while sitting in the hushed auditorium with hundreds of other curious guests. Then, a professor walked onstage and explained he had instructed his students one year ago to come up with a seemingly impossible idea, then “go and chase it.”

The students had come a long way while chasing their impossible dreams over the past year, he said. Ok, I thought… but how far could they get?

One by one, the students unveiled these amazing technological dreams they had created in the wonderland of their minds. All these outrageous visions were coming to life, and almost all of them worked.

They celebrated one that did not work but pushed the boundary farther than ever before. A vision that was about 80 percent successful won the coveted award.

What had grown and taken shape from the seeds of ideas in the minds of the students a year ago amazed me. One presentation used audience members to demonstrate how electronic games or educational programs can be made interactive using shadows. A young man in the audience was called on stage to test a game, in which he convincingly wrestled with a character on the screen.

Then, the whole audience got into the act. We were all leaning to one side and then the other to direct the non-stop action - it was wild! CMU is pushing that boundary - to explore the wonderland of the mind.

Just as they do after seeing Inventionland for the first time, people walked away from the event at CMU inspired and invigorated. I know I was. They got kids interacting with all this electronic technology the world’s never seen before.

The mind truly is a creative wonderland. When you are challenged to use yours to its full potential, it will take you places you once only dreamed of - places that your physical body will gladly follow.

I live by this every day, and I know firsthand what wondrous and surprising things can happen when your mind is open to creativity - impossible dreams can become reality.

Ideas are fragile. We protect ideas and the people who create them from start to finish. This has nothing to do with patents; this is about attitude.

It’s so easy for human beings to say “no” to a new idea; it’s like a self protection mechanism. You have to learn to break that.

We protect ideas at Davison because I’ve seen so many times when people said “no,” but somebody with a hard head was determined to figure it out and make it happen anyway - and they did.

If we had listened to all the cynical people who said “no” to the PC, we wouldn’t have computers in our homes today. If the Wright Brothers had listened to all the skeptics, there wouldn’t be any planes in the skies.

You need to be careful with what the research says because it can be flawed, and very expensive, as the backers of New Coke and Crystal Pepsi in the 90s know only too well. Research can be skewed in many areas - general, patent and market. In simple terms, research is just a basic guide to help you fuel your mind.

An idea is basically a solution to a problem, and it can take on many different forms. Anyone who wants to critique an idea, I’m not going to let them. My basic premise is that I really don’t want a lot of input from outsiders at this fragile stage.

You have to let an idea go through the development process - research, brainstorming, design, testing and interacting - to give it strength. Then your three-dimensional device can interact with critics and you can get real research on the physical product. The idea will probably change many times along the way.

It’s a long process, and we do it every day. What takes longer is figuring out that process, but we’ve already done that - making inventing affordable to just about anyone.

One of the best things about an idea is that it is not right or wrong - who are we to say if it’s right or wrong? If it never goes out and gets tested, how do we know it wasn’t the right answer? Can you look at a nursery full of newborns and say which baby is ‘bad’? Of course not; none are bad, they’re all fresh ideas.

You can only make a child a failure when you don’t put in belief, love and guidance, then you pump in negative energy and unbelief. It’s the same thing with ideas - they’re all little infants. You can turn one into whatever you want.

This company’s an idea; this country’s an idea. Every idea goes through an evolution. You have to enhance the system and tweak it until it’s just right. The progression has a lot to do with what kind of guidance or criticism comes into an idea.

The best way to stop the flow of ideas from someone is to be critical of one. If you’re going to do so, you better have enough of a relationship with that person. If you don’t, they’ll clam shut and you won’t get another idea out of them.

I welcome input and criticism from the right kind of people - doers - people who do stuff all day long - develop a business or ideas in some way, shape or form, and who understand the landscape.

If you decide you’re going to buck the system with your idea, prepare for laughter and put on a thick skin - alligator skin. I think it comes down to jealousy. Be careful of jealousy, it will kill you if you allow it in.

You have to protect that idea; you have to protect yourself. An idea might not work, but at least the person who pursues their dream has the guts to go out and try it. If you never try, you’ll never know what might have been.

So, protect your ideas as if they were fresh, little newborns in a nursery. Shield them from harsh criticism and nourish them as they grow - you just might be amazed at the results.