For Subscribers

Great Minds It takes more than just brain power to make it as an inventor.

By Janean Chun

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Funny how drastic changes often sprout from a single thought.For Anthony Korba, the distance between his past and his futureequaled the distance from Orange County, California, up the coastto San Jose. One day in 1991, Korba was flying his small plane tovisit his son in college. By the time he landed, he had an ideathat would consume the next four years of his life.

"I put the plane on autopilot and just sat back and watchedthe [navigational] stations come up every 30 or 40 miles,"says Korba. "After the third or fourth one, I, having a loveof golf, started thinking, this could be the third hole, the fourthhole, the fifth hole. And I wondered, if you could measure thedistance [between navigational aids] from an airplane, whycouldn't you measure the distance on a golf course?"

While most people ponder such ideas for just a moment beforediscarding them, as soon as he landed Korba grabbed a napkin andscribbled design plans for his hand-held electronicdistance-measuring device for golfers.

The mind of an inventor ticks slightly differently from that ofyour typical human being. While most people go through life barelyaware of the events whirling around them, inventors note thepotential in every situation. Inventors don't look at the waythings are; rather, they ponder the way things should be.Practicing what is arguably the purest form of entrepreneurship,they are a breed unto themselves.

So what separates the Bill Gateses from the Joe Schmoes?Obviously, being a successful innovator as opposed to an eternaldreamer takes more than just an excellent idea. "A lot ofpeople have good ideas and may even get a patent, but thatwon't get them to the profit level," says Barry Rein, apartner at Pennie & Edmonds, an intellectual property law firmin New York City. "Inventors have to be willing to go down thedifficult and rocky road to the marketplace."

"A lot of inventors sit on ideas for years, only todiscover that someone else brought them to the market first,"says Laura Flax, an inventor and invention consultant in CanogaPark, California. "These people think 'I could have beenrich,' but that's not true."

Flax believes the downfall of some inventors is their"arrogance about their first invention. They think their ideais good enough in itself and that if they make a working prototype,they've done most of the work. But that's actually 10 to 20percent of the work. I might come up with 100 ideas, flesh out 10,get one to the prototype stage, and then try to get it to market.And it's getting to market that's really the hardpart."

Try, Try Again

The reality of life as an inventor has less to do with the lightbulb flicking on than with plain old perseverance. According toKorba, instant success is rare. "I have enough of anentrepreneurial background to know if an idea is good or bad,"he says. "But you still have to go through all the stages:research and development, marketing, production, sales. It requiresa lot of 15- to 20-hour workdays. You can fail at any one of thosesteps and take yourself out of the marketplace."

Larry Hayslett and Ed Hirzel are fully aware of the specter offailure-an awareness top inventors use to propel rather thanparalyze them. Sometimes that fear of failure is so strong,inventors can't shake it until they see their products on theshelves.

After investing several years and more than half a milliondollars in Priority Start, a device that protects car batteriesfrom dying, that day of relief isn't quite here for Hayslettand Hirzel's Granada Hills, California-based company, BatonLabs Inc. "We have families, children, house payments, carpayments," says Hayslett. "We've got emotional andphysical stress. All we have [to go on] is faith in theproduct."

Financing has been the major obstacle. "It's difficultfor any start-up company to find investors," Hayslett says."You can't depend on other people and large companies.We've learned to do things ourselves."

Yet the partners haven't given up their quest for aninvestor and are willing to forfeit some control if that's whatit takes. "We're trying to persevere and to not be toopossessive," Hayslett says. "We don't want to have adeath grip-we're too close to having a successfulproduct."

Likewise, even though Korba made all the right moves-taking onthree partners; starting DME/Golf Inc. in Costa Mesa, California;and collaborating with top research companies and NASA-he kepthitting that proverbial brick wall. "These were all capable,sophisticated companies with 90 to 95 percent project successrates," says Korba. "But we were trying to miniaturize anaviation tool that was the size of three or four garages. Thetechnology barriers were immense. We spent a tremendous amount oftime and a ridiculous amount of money and came up completelydry." By the end of 1992, Korba says, "we were ready togive up."

For the first time facing the prospect that their product mightbe dead in the water, the partners decided to take a breather for30 days. Still, Korba remained committed to the idea, and, finally,his big break came. "By chance, a friend who knew of myproject informed me of an inventor whose work in this area wasbeing declassified [by the government]," Korba says.

The inventor turned out to be one of the original collaboratorson laser range-finding technology in the '70s. Within 24 hoursof meeting, he and Korba had struck a deal; six months later, Korbahad his prototype. "There were a lot of trials andtribulations. We failed literally three times with [research anddevelopment companies] that were well-recognized in theindustry," says Korba.

As daunting as the process was, Korba doesn't believe hisstruggle is unique. "If you contacted a large number ofsuccessful American companies, you'd probably find everycompany has gone through this phase," he says. "Itdoesn't matter if it's a $100 company or a $100 millioncompany-at some point, an idea probably didn't fly. [Success]requires the ability to go beyond that point, to let persistenceand determination take hold. Even when they're facing defeat,successful inventors will find a way to make it happen. Ourattitude [when facing obstacles] was to go right, go left, go up,go down-to take that extra step, always looking for a way to solvethe problems."

Invention Protection

Unfortunately for inventors, the problems to solve are many.Ironically, the answer to an inventor's most urgent question(How do I protect my idea?) happens to be one of the most tediousaspects of inventing (Patent it). Dealing with patent searches andintellectual property attorneys isn't exactly the mostglamorous leg of the journey.

"Many inventors haven't been through the processyet," says Rein. "It's their first time, and theyhave an understandable fear of the system. But venture capitalistsand funding providers want to know what kind of protection youhave. That's why patents are so important-they build a wallaround [your invention]."

As if the process weren't complicated enough, Rein pointsout that all patent searches are not created equal. "Thesearch is usually dollar-limited," says Rein. "If youspent a few thousand more dollars-or a few tens of thousands moredollars-in a search, there's a chance you'd find outsomething you wouldn't otherwise know."

It all comes back to that classic Catch-22 scenario: It takesmoney to make money. "There's an initial difficulty newinventors have-they're looking at the protection problem at atime when they have zero money," Rein admits. "To someextent, you can share your idea with potential funders inconfidence, but you have to have enough money to seek adequateprotection before you go out and really raise money. That's thetightrope inventors have to walk."

Besides taking care of patent legalities, revealing your idea toassociates or investors requires a healthy dose of discretion."The feedback I've gotten has been so valuable inimproving my products, I've always considered [disclosure] arisk worth taking," says Flax. "But you always have to beaware of who you're talking to. Do your homework before youdisclose information to anyone.

"If you want to show your invention to a large company,find out its reputation, whether it's interested in ideas fromoutsiders, and whether it has pending lawsuits against it. Ofcourse, when there's an opportunity for you to benefit fromsomeone's input, by all means share your idea."

However, because of the volatile nature of personalrelationships, Rein advises taking precautions with even yourclosest friends and family-you never know when an informalcollaboration could turn into a legal nightmare. Experiencedventure capitalists will be on the lookout for loopholes created bypartnerships based on "the honor system." Says Rein,"Getting the proper recognition of ownership on paper upfrontis extremely important for inventors."

The Race Is On

Protecting your idea is one thing; obsessing about it isanother. While it's healthy to believe in your idea, manyinventors become insanely overprotective.

"Inventors become convinced that they have the bestsolution and become unreceptive to outside input," says Flax."I've known a lot of inventors who get very defensiveabout feedback. Their products usually do not get to market. Youhave to be receptive to what potential users and marketing peopletell you. Don't be afraid to rebuild your product."

Actually, the possibility of you taking someone else's ideais just as likely as someone taking yours. "Four and a halfyears ago, we thought we were the original inventor of the idea[for golf distance-measuring equipment]," says Korba."But every time you have what you think is an original idea,you can bet 10 other people have already thought of it."

So the race goes not to the inventor who comes up with the ideabut to the one who makes it to market first. But ironically, beingoverprotective of your invention can end up dooming it to oblivion.Flax has seen several of her ideas upstaged by others. The firstwas a hand-held vacuum, the Bug Sucker, which Flax designed ingraduate school to, well, pick up bugs. Soon after she marketed herprototype, a similar product came out-produced by RemingtonProducts and, she says, mysteriously dubbed the Bug Sucker.

Flax also designed a call-waiting simulator that faked the soundof call waiting so people could squirm out of undesirable phoneconversations-and then read about a similar product in an airlinemagazine.

Recently, Flax saw a TV news segment about an orthopedic surgeonmarketing another idea of hers-women's shoes withinterchangeable heels. "If you have an idea in response to aneed, it's not uncommon for someone else to be working on thesame thing," says Flax. "That doesn't necessarilymean they stole it. The point is, you have to move quickly. Ofteninventors want to perfect something before they show it to othersbecause they're afraid it's going to be stolen. I encouragethem to do their homework before disclosing it to anyone. But ifyou don't take risks, you won't succeed."

If someone beats you to market, Flax says, it should onlyinspire you to do more. "There is a tremendous initialdisappointment," she acknowledges. "But I use [thoseexperiences] to light a fire under myself and to pledge that nexttime, I'll move faster."

Then there's the attitude that if you can't beat'em, join 'em. Placing second or even third in the race toretail is perfectly respectable, not to mention extremelyprofitable, says Flax, "as long as you're improving on [aproduct] or introducing it to a new market, rather than infringingon a patent or stealing an idea."

For example, when an innocuous little hairstyling device calledthe Topsy Tail turned into the über invention of the '90s,numerous aspiring innovators dreamed of tapping the trend. Oneperson aiming to reinvent the Topsy Tail is Michelle Johnson, whoseStyle-a-Braid hopes to do for French braids what its predecessordid for pony tails.

"I read about [Tomima Edmark, the inventor of the TopsyTail], and my first thought was to come up with a hair-braidingdevice," says Johnson, a hairstylist in Westchester, Illinois.Currently selling thousands of Style-a-Braids through mail order,Johnson recently won an award at an invention convention and plansto produce an infomercial.

Eyes On The Prize

For inventors, passion and perseverance coalesce to form atangible product. "We failed 80 percent of the time, but wealways found a way around the problem," says Korba. "Wewere so enamored with our vision, we believed it wouldwork."

And it did. DME/Golf has established a relationship with theU.S. Golf Association, which is using DME technology for a study onputting. Motorola recently authorized DME to use its name on theproduct, and DME received national TV exposure during the U.S.Open. "All of a sudden, other companies [such as golf courses]are lining up to sign contracts with us," says Korba."It's an affirmation that the crazy idea we had four yearsago has wings and can fly on its own."

In fact, the success of DME/Golf has launched not just a newproduct but an entire industry. "This is an embryonic fieldthat has just now found acceptance in the world of golf," saysKorba. "We helped pioneer an industry that is going to evolveover the next five years."

Yet that won't mean the end of the journey for Korba, who isalready considering applying his technology to products for archeryand the military. In fact, one of the greatest discoveries forinventors is that, as devoted as they are to each individualinvention, their passion for the process transcends any oneproduct.

"It's a mind-set I've had for a long time,"says Flax. "I want to take an idea from A to Z, walk into astore or open a catalog and see my product-something I amresponsible for. I've always wanted to invent something, tomake some sort of contribution . . . to create something that makespeople say, 'I'm glad we have this.' "

What's The Big Idea?

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

How can you come up with such ideas? Sure, you can track thetrends, do demographic studies and arrange focus groups, butinvention consultant Laura Flax says inspiration more often strikeson a personal level.

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

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

Contact Sources

Baton Labs Inc., 17939 Chatsworth Ave., #521, GranadaHills, CA 91344, (818) 363-5390;

DME/Golf Inc., 3180 Redhill, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, (800)711-GOLF, (714) 432-7100;

Laura Flax, P.O. Box 2683, Winnetka, CA 91396;

Pennie & Edmonds, 1155 Ave. of the Americas, NewYork, NY 10036, (212) 790-6546;

Style-A-Braid Inc., (800) 827-2432, fax: (708)562-2726.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Editor's Pick

Culture

A Slack Channel or Meditation App Won't Fix Mental Health — Here's How to Lead Like It Matters

Mental health should be treated as a core component of your company's infrastructure, not an afterthought or perk. Neglecting it leads to diminished productivity, burnout and high employee turnover.

Business News

'The Decade of Autonomous Vehicles': Nvidia CEO Predicts Major Growth in Robotics, Self-Driving Cars

At the VivaTech conference in Paris this week, Nvidia revealed its autonomous vehicle development platform for automakers to build self-driving cars.

Business News

Shaquille O'Neal Is Settling the FTX Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Him By Investors. Here's How Much He'll Pay Out.

NBA Hall of Famer Shaq is settling a class action lawsuit brought by FTX investors who claim they were misled.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Leadership

As a Leader, You Set the Tone — Here's Why Staying Calm Builds a Stronger Business

One thing I know unequivocally is that your mindset as a leader directly impacts your entire organization.

Business News

Deloitte Is Reimbursing Employees Up to $1,000 — For Buying Lego Sets

Each Deloitte employee can spend up to $1,000 on items to improve their well-being.