The Ten Roads to Riches: The Ways the Wealthy Got There (And How You Can Too!)

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, ...