Invent That Now

I get regular requests for information regarding inventing and product development and have written many articles on the subject. I have also written two books that I have not yet listed for sale.

Well, the time has come and I wanted to leak out bits and pieces of "Invent That Now" as I ready it for publishing. Here is a piece of the introduction. 

####

“Inventions reached their limit long ago, and I see no hope for further development.” - Julius Frontinus, 1st Century A.D.

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” -

Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Patent Office, 1899

I guess it’s good thing that Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, you and I never got the memo.  When these stewards of forward progress spoke these words many years ago no one was listening.  Luckily.

Here are some not so obscure things created early in the 20^th century, early 1900’s – hard to believe, especially since there was nothing more to invent!  Richard G. Drew invented masking tape in 1923 and created the clear tape called Scotch Brand Cellulose Tape in 1930, and what would we do without the dispenser for that tape invented by John A. Borden in 1932, both men were 3M employees.  Ruth Wakefield invented chocolate chips in 1930, she ran “The Toll House Inn” in Whitman Massachusetts.  Of course a nod has to go to Edwin Perkins of Omaha, Nebraska for bringing us “Fruit Smack” (which became Kool-Aid) in 1927 – The seven original Kool-Aid flavors were: Cherry, Lemon-Lime, Grape, Orange, Root Beer, Strawberry, and Raspberry.  

Although Nikola Tesla invented the radio, it was promoted and popularized by Guglielmo Marconi in 1895 - The first radio transmission across an ocean (the Atlantic Ocean) occurred on December 12, 1901.

Along with the Popsicle invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson in 1905, the Slinky™, the Zipper, Q-tips™, the polio vaccine, the tea bag and Velcro™ were all invented in the early 1900’s, all of these and plenty more found their way to the market after 1899.  

On December 17, 1903, the "Flyer" flew for 12 seconds and for a distance of 120 feet (37 m).  Remember the Wright brothers?  The list goes on and on and although a patent doesn’t mean you will make any money or even have a marketable item, the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued over 7,000,000 patents since its beginnings in 1790, some of them have made the inventor money, mostly not though. 

   

The Reality is that ideas are a dime a dozen, and the only thing that makes them special is that they’re yours.  The trick is to know what to do with ideas when you get them. 

It’s difficult to stay objective about our latest and greatest ideas so here are the four criteria to apply to help decide whether or not to forge ahead with your latest million-dollar idea:  

1. Are you solving a problem?  
2. Are you fulfilling a dream?  
3. Are you inventing to a need?  
4. Can this thing be manufactured and sold at a profit?  

All the Best,

Scott Evans

Decisions & Accountability

To Whom or What do you assign your successes? To Whom or What do you assign your failures or shortcomings? How do we account for who or what we've become? How do we explain having someone or something to which we are held accountable?

Decisions are funny things. They both determine, in large part, our future and of course are those silly little things that built the construct under which we live. There are tiers of accountability and like clockwork we fall into line through training, time in the trenches, coercion, and most of all whether we want to admit it or not through our decisions.

Notwithstanding our formative years and the decisions made for us by our parents, teachers and the whole host of minders that may have had something to do with our direction early in life, we are still faced with having made the decisions we've made as well we're faced with the outcomes, both good and bad.

So, the question might be, "What criteria, values, system or compass do we rely on when it comes time for decision making?" Is it the Almighty God principle? After all, some people believe that the idea of something to believe in trumps the idea of nothing to believe in. Is the driving principle behind your decision making simply doing the "right thing?" If so, What accounts for the "right thing" being right?

If, as mentioned earlier, there are tiers of accountability they might be best aligned as follows:

Local - Regional - Global (LRG). You can work this scale forward or backward, as long as you accept the notion that we are accountable to ourselves, our family and friends, our community and whatever higher governing body or spiritual sense you may have. Some may draw all decision making and direction from their higher power, and then that "system" of thought and conduct trickles down to all parts of life. Some people may decide "for themselves" to be a good person and build out a future based on self thought propositions. In any case there are markers of accountability that must be acknowledged in order to operate in and navigate through life - Because remember, no one is an "only-one."

The degree to which you put yourself out there concerns the middle ground - the Regional - How prepared are you to operate in the area between yourself and your higher sense of things?  

There are no hard-and-fast answers otherwise we'd all be walking around in total agreement. Agreement on the cause for the first cause, what makes up the optimum diet, daylight savings time, whether God is good or should be feared (or both), do video games cause violent outbursts, was Seinfeld really a show about nothing, etc.

The real point seems to be to find a point of acceptable exchange(s) between folks. Instead of "You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours," how about, "Let's scratch each other's back." But scratch in the manner they want to be scratched, not how you want to deliver the scratch. After all shouldn't their expectation of receiving the experience trump your expectation of delivering it?

If we are attempting to break down barriers of resistance in any relationship, from business to personal, wouldn't it make sense to operate under the idea that everyone "Gets More?" This all really comes down to deciding on a new operating basis and decisions that move us in the direction we're going - Which by the way, is not always aligned with where the other person is going.

So, try as we might to stand out from the crowd (which is an admirable trait and, I think, a good and proper operating basis), we must understand that we are all in a constant process of fine tuning our decision making, constantly shoring up our value systems and checking in with our higher sense of things to see to it that we have met our own (the higher sense's) expectations.

More to come, but for now I'd appreciate you sharing this post with friends and family.

All the Best,
Scott Evans

      

Glossophobia

Hello There,

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the fourth week of an eight week stand up comedy class I'm attending, it all culminates with an actual stand up routine, in front 75 (+ -) people, at Flappers Comedy House in Burbank, California December 16th. Of course I aspire to having an HBO special and will stop at nothing to make that happen! I Love the exchange of energy while in front of a crowd. (I sure I'm funny on December 16th).

Public speaking, giving presentations, speaking to groups, etc. has never been a problem for me but I do understand some people have "back-off" when it comes to public speaking. I thought I'd try and make the case that we can all enjoy something that is surveyed to be one of the biggest fears - Glossophobia, fear of public speaking.

While I was on a speaking tour of western Canada I made a stop in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, Canada. A woman came up to me and said she had a product, a new invention, she wanted to bring to market and wanted to know how to go about presenting her idea to industry; she said she was afraid to speak in front of people and that she was basically a shy person. I asked her about her product and she told me - She didn't just tell me about it, she was animated and emotionally driven in her explanation. Believe me when I tell you, this was not a shy person standing in front of me.

I think the problem isn't that people have a fear of public speaking, rather they either have nothing to say or are simply not prepared. I know that anyone with a passion for something will stop at nothing to be heard by as many people as will gather around, so it got me thinking.

How can a person develop a story, how can they either "have" something to say or "create" something to say? Then attach an emotion to that "something?" The point isn't simply to speak, the point has to be speaking on or about a subject that has emotion attached to it. That emotion is either  coming from the speaker or being evoked/elicited out of/from the audience. Whether it be selling something or whipping a group into a frenzied agreement about a cause, there must be some degree of emotion on both sides of the conversation.

So, I ask you - What are you most concerned about? What drives you emotionally? What do you want to tell people? What cause or causes are you ready to rally the troops around? The list of questions is almost endless but the point is to find that "something" that has emotion attached to it, or that you can attach an emotion to. So, put on your hiking boots, climb to the top of the mountain and start talking your talk, speaking your speak - Stop at nothing to be heard!

Below are a couple websites that list out top fears.

SelfHelpCollective has their list:
01. Fear of flying
02. Fear of public speaking 
03. Fear of heights 
04. Fear of the dark 
05. Fear of intimacy 
06. Fear of death 
07. Fear of failure 
08. Fear of rejection (my own)
09. Fear of spiders 
10. Fear of commitment

TotallyTop10 has public speaking at #2 as well:
1) Snakes
2) Public Speaking
3) Heights
4) Enclosed Spaces
5) Spiders and Insects 
6) Needles
7) Mice
8) Flying
9) Dogs
10) Thunder and Lightening 


All the Best,
Scott Evans