How to Become Successful

Stephen Key·September 25, 2020

Let These 8 Principles Guide Your Mission-Driven Company

How do you build, run, and ultimately grow a mission-driven company that you will be proud of? At inventRight , the company I built with my business partner Andrew Krauss, our mission is simple: To help inventors license their ideas....

Stephen Key·August 21, 2018

How to Achieve Repeat Success Licensing Your Inventions

For former mechanical engineer George Burkhardt, being resourceful is a way of life. Since the Texan retired about fifteen years ago, he's achieved great success bringing his ideas for new products to life. I've had the pleasure of knowing Burkhardt...

Stephen Key·August 18, 2018

How to Become More Successful Licensing Your Product Ideas

Inventors, you're doing it all wrong! Most inventors observe a problem and then attempt to come up with a solution for it. When they've invented one, they shop that solution around for licensing consideration (or try to build a business...

Stephen Key·January 12, 2018

How Licensing-'in' a Brand Can Wildly Grow Your Product Business

For many years, I licensed out my ideas for new products to companies that were better equipped to bring them to market. When I came up with an idea I thought was good, I'd show it to companies that marketed...

Stephen Key·January 12, 2018

License Your Product Idea to a Fortune 500 Company Using These Steps

I have licensed more than 20 products over the past 30 years. In most cases, I worked with midsize companies. The reason why is simple: They're fairly easy to work with! They review products swiftly, they get back to you...

Stephen Key·October 29, 2016

Why Entrepreneurs Must Believe in Themselves

I can remember sitting in a classroom at Santa Clara University and looking out of a window at the rain, feeling desperately unhappy. I didn’t want to be studying economics. It wasn’t that my classes were tough, although they definitely...

When You're Unafraid to Ask for a No, You Become Unstoppable

Success has a lot to do with momentum. What sets those who achieve their goals apart? They keep moving the ball down the court. They don't let obstacles derail them. They hang in there. What does that look like in...

9 Fears About the Licensing Process You Should Banish This Year

Our fears hold us back, sometimes without us even realizing it. Things will go wrong. My advice? Plan ahead. Most people never plan for failure. There's that saying, "There is no Plan B." I think adopting that attitude is a...

The 5 Things You Really Need to Become a Successful Entrepreneur

You read about people who are successful. You see their smiling faces on television and social media. They look calm, confident, and happy. And you think, "I want that." Looks can be deceiving. Do you have what it takes? Are...

The Secret to Selling Your Ideas? Act Faster

It's pretty simple. If you want to transform an idea into a product sold on the market, you need to act fast. I discovered this after deciding I would make a go at licensing my ideas for a living. It...

5 Qualities of Successful Entrepreneurs

A decade ago, I helped found a business dedicated to helping entrepreneurs bring their business ideas to fruition. I've mentored and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs since. Many of my students have licensed their ideas to powerful companies or brought them...

5 Signs You're Standing in Your Own Way of Success

While a lot of the entrepreneurs I've met and mentored in the past decade have been successful, I've probably met as many, if not more, unsuccessful entrepreneurs. Each of them seemed to make a lot of the same mistakes --...

How to Never Say Anything You Regret

Entrepreneurs are passionate people. Not only are we not afraid to be heard — we want to be heard! But there are many, many instances when knowing when to shut up will benefit you immensely. Cultivating your ability to hold...

How to Combat Your Fear of Rejection

Our fear of rejection is so powerful, it’s stops most of us in our tracks -- whether we realize it or not. It prevents us from moving forward in our professional and personal lives. As a result, we’re afraid to...

The Positive Power of Saying No

Why is saying no so hard? In my personal and professional relationships, I have a difficult time turning people down, even when there are good reasons I should. I'm not completely sure why so many of us feel this way,...

Want to Make More Money? Understand the Multiplying Effect

How much money do you want to make every year? If you haven’t seriously asked yourself that, you should. Why wouldn’t you learn how to make money ? It’s a very easy question to answer. And until you’ve really thought...

6 Practices to Boost Your Chances of Success in Life and Business

We all define success differently. For some, it might be the ability to purchase a nice car or take a fabulous vacation. For others, it might mean being able to provide for one’s family. I think it’s important to take...

Embrace Change: The 4 Skills Needed to Reinvent Yourself

We no longer work for the same company for 40 years. If you are entrepreneurially-minded, this reality shouldn’t scare you. For better or worse, we have more opportunities than ever to earn an income in different ways. Have faith in...

How to Create Your Own Luck

I used to think that I could achieve success simply by working harder than the next guy -- not necessarily smarter, mind you, but harder. I would wake up earlier and go to bed late. I would work on the...

These 4 Feelings Could Hold You Back From Greatness

Right now, I’m reading Tim O’Brien’s The Things We Carried and really enjoying it. I’ve never been to war, but it’s made me think about the feelings I’m holding on to too closely. We carry memories of our past experiences...

How to Make Better Decisions

When we’re just starting out, we’re thirsty for advice. How else can we be sure we’re making the right decisions? It’s in our best interest to seek out advice -- lots of it. But there comes a time when you...

9 Traits That Will Lead You to Success

Much has been written about this topic. Every budding entrepreneur wants to know: Do I have what it takes to make it? Is success a matter of being in the right place at the right time? How big of a...

6 Qualities That Will Set Your Business Apart From Its Competitors

Between the day-to-day tasks of running a business, it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. But your business is about so much more than the bottom line. If you want to create a product or service...

Inventors, Don't Let Fear Hold You Back!

I am truly amazed by how afraid some inventors are. They fear that someone is going to steal their million-dollar idea. They assume that every company is eagerly lying in wait, ready to rip them off. This ugly point of...

13 Things Successful Inventors Do and Don’t Do

To master any profession, determination is needed. There are no shortcuts. No one can bestow upon you all of the knowledge you need. You have to do the work yourself -- which is why achieving success is so gratifying! The...

The Fastest Way to the Top? Join a Startup

Working at a startup taught me more about business than any other endeavor has. In the mid ‘80s, long before startup culture was red hot, I joined a toy company that was rapidly growing in Fremont, California. Looking back, the...

Stephen Key·September 29, 2016

Is That a Small Problem or a Big Problem?

My business is almost always on my mind. It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning and the last thing I think about before I fall asleep. That’s because I care about it deeply....

Stephen Key·September 29, 2016

15 Practices of Successful Entrepreneurs

Managing your team is a serious responsibility. Are your employees enthusiastic about coming to work? Do they trust and support your vision? To grow your business, you need to do more than supervise. You need to engage and inspire the...

Stephen Key·September 29, 2016

How to Become Successful at Anything: A 3-Step Formula

What does it really take to be successful? I think I have an answer. That’s a bold claim, I know. But I can back it up. Hear me out. I’ve been teaching people how to bring product ideas to market...

Entrepreneurs Who Embody These 9 Practices Will Gain Loyalty

If you want to create a successful business, you need to set an example for others to follow. Establishing and maintaining the right kind of culture is essential in any business. My decades of experience as an entrepreneur have taught...

Entrepreneurs Don't Overthink Things. They Make a Decision and Go With It.

Are you overthinking it? Don’t. I have a simple theory about why entrepreneurs fail to move forward with their projects. They spend too much time weighing their options. I constantly stress the importance of doing one’s homework. Studying whatever it...

Creating a 'Cool' Product is So Far From Enough

What sets apart products that succeed from those that don’t? When I first started out, I thought the most important element of a product idea was creative it was. That was how I measured greatness. Did it make people smile?...

How to Become a Better inventRight Student

I’ve been teaching a course, inventRight, with Andrew Krauss for nearly 15 years now. It’s a pleasure. We’re dedicated to teaching people how to license their ideas. We continue to give a lot of our insight and methodologies away for...

To Earn Financial Freedom, Do These 5 Things

Who doesn’t want to be free? To possess the ability to do what you want, when you want. I’ve always felt like, life is too short. It’s definitely too short to be unhappy. When I was an undergraduate at Santa...

How to Win at Inventing: It’s a Numbers Game

When I left the startup Worlds of Wonder to bring my own ideas for toys to market, I quickly learned I would need to come up with a lot of ideas to land on a winner. There were just so...

10 Guaranteed Ways to Become Luckier in Business

Do you believe in luck? I don’t, not really. Not in the conventional sense anyway. I believe it’s entirely possible to create your own luck. You can become luckier, absolutely. Because fact is, luck is really about chance: The chance...

The Crucial Moment Separating Amateurs From the Pros

What motivates you to succeed? Personally, I hate to fail. I take rejection personally. I can’t help it. I want to win. And I’m thankful for that. Because I’ve come to realize there are few qualities more important for entrepreneurs...