
Marketingyour
product-even
if
your
product is
you-is
vital.
142
1The
Ten
Roads
to Riches
THE
TRUE
INVENTORS
Yes,
there are true
"inventors"-folks
who create things so earth-
shatteringly life-changing you can't imagine life without them, like
the
PC
or polio vaccine.
Or
mundane, everyday things.
The
trick is
patenting it, so you collect every time your gadget is used or sold.
Everyone wrongly cites the guys who invented Post-its (Arthur
Fry
and Spen
cer
Silver) as classic successful inventors-striking it big with
a mundane idea. Fry,a 3M chemist, wanted bookmarks to stay put in his
choir hymnal.
He
used his buddy and coworker Silver's adhesive-sticky
enough, but not so much as to tear the page when removed
-voila!
A
pop-culture icon was
born.' But they weren't income inventors. Being
3M employees, their creation was a "work
product"-they
couldn't own
it.
They
probably got a nice bonus but didn't invent a future revenue
stream for themselves.Just "inventing" may not hack it.
Invent?
Ma
rket?
Do
Both!
Nor
will a patent. Lots of people hold patents
-tens
of
millions!
To create future income, you must have broad adaptation like
our
Post
-it
friends, but you must also maintain control
of
the future.
Successful income inventors have an entrepreneurial soul and
can market their ideas.
If
you can't preach the benefit, you go
unnoticed-marketing
is key. You must have broad reach and a
compelling
story-or
a compelling personality, like the father
of
inventors, ...