Great Minds

You don't have to be Alexander Graham Bell or Henry Ford to make your mark with an innovation. Mouse pads, paper clips, Mylar balloons, bottle openers-practically everything, no matter how inconsequential, was once an inventor's "baby."

How can you come up with such ideas? Sure, you can track the trends, do demographic studies and arrange focus groups, but invention consultant Laura Flax says inspiration more often strikes on a personal level.

"More than 90 percent of the time, you come up with things that are relevant to your own life," Flax says. "People say, 'They should come up with something that does such and such.' But who is They?"

In fact, Flax says, there's probably an inventor lurking in everyone. "People say they can't invent because they're not creative. That's not true," she asserts. "All you have to do is pay attention to what you do in your life for one day and keep a list of things that bother you. You'd be surprised what you come up with."

This article was originally published in the January 1996 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Great Minds.