Is a great invention enough for successful inventing? What about a good plan or a good inventing coach, like inventRight provides?
What I’ve found is all these elements are critical, but there is often one element that’s left out, and that’s simple persistence — to keep going when all our senses are screaming to us, “This is way too hard, I’m not good enough, why not just give up?”
Ever had those thoughts? I know I have………….. many times!
I’m not saying to not pause on a project, because it’s in these moments of pause that some of my greatest insights as to what to do next have come to me.
What I am saying is not to throw up our hands and give up on successful inventing and stop altogether. Our dreams and goals deserve far more commitment than simply giving up because the going gets too tough.
Along my inventing adventures, I’ve seen inventors who are way smarter than me and inventors who have far better inventions than my BetterBlocks fail to succeed. Why? Because they gave up. They stopped. Their journey got too hard.
The beauty of persistence is we all have it, and it’s a choice we make if we want to use it or not. Persistence and the ability to learn from our mistakes and keep going are what truly make us successful.
Persistence comes from our belief in ourselves and our abilities. We may not know what to do next, but we’re going to give it our best shot to find out.
Remember all the times you’ve learnt something new. Did things always go to plan? Probably not, but you kept going anyway. What did it feel like when you finally achieved success? Was all the work you put in worth it?
I know in my case………… absolutely!
Like I’ve said, we’ve all got it. It’s a matter of choice whether we’re persistent and keep on going, or simply give up and stop.
I’ve found “Great Inventions come from the outside in. Successful inventors come from the inside out.”
What do I mean by this?
Have you found yourself looking at something then saying this to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if it would only do (you fill in the blank)?”
In my case, I thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if Lego® blocks bent, curved, and moved?”
All these thoughts are stimulated by something outside of us.
It’s one thing to have an idea and even make a prototype, but it’s a whole other reality to turn that idea into dollars in your pocket.
What I’ve noticed is very few of us inventors are salespeople, negotiators, marketers, financiers, manufacturers, distributors, legal or financial advisers. However, all these skills are needed to bring our invention to market, to put money in our pockets. You can either build your own team or, license your invention to a company which has all these areas already established.
It doesn’t matter which way we choose; we need to be able to sell our invention to someone and negotiate a deal with that person.
I don’t know about you, but I was certainly no salesperson or negotiator.
I had to learn these skills, which I found very confronting. I was an introverted guy running a very small engineering business from a shed in my dad’s backyard. To become a sales person and negotiator, I had to become a different person, and for me, that was tough.
Not only was I learning new skills in real life situations and of course, making mistakes, but I had to handle all the no’s I received, pick myself up and continue on.
To not know what we’re doing, make mistakes but keep picking ourselves up and continuing on is an internal battle. The decision to keep on going is a choice we make. It’s us who decide whether we stop or not.
To me, it’s simply persistence, and we all have persistence. Whether or not we choose to keep going or give up is our choice, it is no one else’s and it comes from inside of us.
Remember all the times you’ve learned something new.
Did things always go to plan? Probably not but you kept going anyway.
What’d it feel like when you finally achieved success? Was all the work worth it?
In my case…………absolutely!
That’s why I say “Successful inventors come from the inside out,” because it’s the choices we make, and keep on making, which determines if we are ultimately successful or not.
So, keep on making choices!
With Gratitude, Warren
