Corporations are coming to me to deploy my method on their ideas, as well as to ask me and my team to come up with ideas for them. You may be surprised to learn that the one thing they never bring up to me in our early discussions is patenting. You see, corporations have been developing ideas into products for decades, and they understand when the patent comes into play.

A new invention inside a corporation may start out as an idea from an engineer, who builds a prototype, then goes for additional funding and review by corporate executives until finally someone says, “This really looks like it could be a new product for our company.” At that point, some corporations look at patenting as an option. Others will actually send their sales people to meet with the buyers, who agree to confidentiality, and present the innovation to get feedback to see if there’s any market for this new creation. If, at either of these stages, the feedback doesn’t look promising, the corporations don’t bother wasting their money on attorneys and patent fees. A new invention by an everyday person, however, usually starts out differently than those of experienced corporations.

If you’re reading this blog, it probably means you’re into ideas, and you’ve probably been in a setting where someone said, “Oh, I’ve got an idea,” and someone else said, “You better get a patent first.” Well, this has happened to me recently, and as I sat there and listened to the dialogue between these two people who had no corporate experience, it dawned on me. Little did they know – the way it works is, in fact, the exact opposite. The idea in question hadn’t been developed at all. Anybody who does this work knows that every idea goes through many changes on its journey from a thought to a finished product that can be manufactured and packaged at a price point that the consumer is willing to pay.

The lesson is simple, folks: Patent like a corporation — after you have fully figured out the product and know if it’s wanted by the buyers. Don’t waste your money.

Click here for a free Confidentiality Agreement.

I learned the value of creation when I was a boy. I think it all started with my Uncle Bob. He was my Cub Scout master and a believer in people’s human potential. He was also one of those guys who could build just about anything with his hands. One of the things I found the most interesting about growing up around him was his positive attitude. He was a firm believer in the notion, “If you can think of it, you can make it.” It’s interesting because, as time ticks on, I’m finding that believing in yourself and what you’re creating is the inventor’s secret ingredient.

It’s not always easy to be positive because there’s always a critic around the corner; it may be a parent, a teacher, a spouse or a friend. And when we trust them with our deepest thoughts and ideas we expose so much of ourselves to criticism, and some creative people may never recover. This blog is for all of you out there who keep the faith and keep strong in the face of opposition when it confronts you or confronts your idea. Remember, those closest to you are one type of critic, and the other is the competition to your idea. They will use their political influence to criticize your idea in hopes that they will stop you or tire you out. By the way, if this is happening to you let me be the first to congratulate you. Your idea is becoming so successful that it threatens their position in the world. So, smile at their attempt to criticize and let it give you inner strength and more desire in your heart to succeed.

One of my mentors always said, “I never want to sail the open seas with a captain who has only had calm seas.” Experience in difficult and challenging situations is of more value than most people realize. The experienced creative people, like Edison, Ford and Disney, knew when they were becoming successful. Their ideas were forcing change and that’s never easy for those entrenched in the way things are currently done. The battles between Edison and Westinghouse, the zipper and Velcro, and more, are well documented. So know your history because it will guide you, and always believe in yourself and what you’re creating; it truly is the inventor’s secret ingredient.  

As with all professions, there are basic building blocks that provide the foundation upon which everything else is built. If you’ve selected creating as the thing you like to do, then you already know this to be true.

For example, someone who loves to make clay pots and is always creating them knows that over time their skills get better. Practice makes perfect, in other words. The act of inventing something also requires constant work at creating all the different facets of the invention in order to make it into a new product.

First, there’s the creation of the idea, and the more brainstorming you do, the better you get at it. Then, there’s the creation of concept models, and the more you do of that, the better you get at it. There’s the creation of best manufacturing methods to make the product, and the more you do, the better you get at it. The more you create engineering, photography and graphics for packaging, and packages to store shelf quality the better you get at those. But that’s not all – the more you negotiate with corporations and work at forming good relationships with companies, the better you get at those, as well.

If you take all those things and wrap them up into one big bundle, the better you get at inventing new products. The ABC’s of inventing is to be creating all the time in any of those areas. The skill sets required to become proficient in all of them are truly hard to find. It’s kind of like the famous artists of the world whose paintings hang in museums. After a lifetime of working on the ABCs, every work of art they’ve created is in demand.

Now that we have created more products that are in the stores than anyone else, we have broken new ground and made history; but we never take our eyes off the ABC’s. Each product we design – whether for ourselves, corporations or the individuals who hire us – gets treated like a work of art by skilled artisans with intense dedication who are always focusing on those ABC’s, project after project.