You may be college-educated, experienced in your craft and can bring new and exciting ideas to the world. On the other hand, there are other skills you can’t learn in formal education if you wish to become an inventor.
Setting and following a Schedule
It’s very important to keep your mind in the best taste: Just because you can work all day doesn’t mean you should. Set a reasonable schedule for yourself and try to follow it. Give yourself breaks when you need them: your brain is now your most profitable asset, so you need to take good care of it.
On the other hand, when you’re not working under the supervision of an annoying boss, you might start to feel like you can indulge in a little more time in bed, a couple of hours of watching TV here and there- don’t fall into this trap. Being too lenient with yourself will make you unmotivated. This is where you have to put a lot of willpower into following the set schedule. You’re your boss now; be disciplined.
Research skills
Just sitting in your office thinking hard isn’t going to make you have a good idea. You need to do a lot of research. Remember: Find a problem, then invent a solution. To find problems you’re going to have to do a lot of research into whatever market you feel suits you the best, the one topic that you feel inspires your imagination.
The more research you do, the more problems you’ll find (there’s always a problem waiting to be found) and the more ideas you can brainstorm. The better your research skills, the more prolific you’ll become.
Plan ahead
You have to be prepared. Many inventors think only about the process, the inventing part of the job. But what’s going to happen after your invention is bought, or worse, what’s going to happen if you fail?
Don’t set yourself up to this kind of thing: if you don’t have any sort of plan to fall back on, you can feel devoid of purpose and overwhelmed after months of working on one single project, thinking about one thing only.
This is why it’s always good to plan: Have a list of ideas for potential inventions that you can use so you don’t have to start from scratch whenever a project of yours is over. You can hedge against failure by partnering with a company like InventHelp that knows how to make an invention into a marketable product.
Thinking like an Investor
Great, you’ve come up with a good. Maybe even a great idea.
Now you have to ask, is it worth it?
Is your idea going to be worth the countless hours of work you’re going to put into it?
Think like an investor. Is the project going to pay off for all of the work that is requires, all of the money for development, patent, etc?
Even if your idea is a winner idea, you have to take into account whether it’s a good investment. Those that invested in the George Foreman grill thought it was a good idea, but celebrity backing had more to do with it.
Keeping your mouth shut
It’s going to be all for nothing is you keep talking about your invention, whether you post it on facebook or you just tell your friends about it. Great inventors knew to never talk about what they were working on. There’s always someone eager to steal your work because they can’t do it themselves!
It’s also a great tip to not talk too much to your friends and family about your inventions… You don’t want to become that guy who’s always going on about their things.
Thinking small
When people think of inventors, they usually picture someone who’s trying to solve the world’s problems, one the machine at a time!
But that’s far from the truth.
Your focus is better spent on smaller problems. If you actively try to solve big problems, your head is going to explode, you’ll never come up with a good idea.
Think about the things that make an active difference in your life, the normal things because if you try to think of a way to turn deserts into oceans and water into wine, you’re never going to come up with a viable invention.
Internet Skills
It’s a common story: An inventor has a great idea, a great product, but nobody will invest. But through internet contacts, A Kickstarter/gofundme page, they were able to finance their invention and turn the whole idea into a reality.
This takes a certain knowledge of how these websites work: You can’t just go in there, post a picture and a description and expect for the money to knock at your door.
Familiarize yourself with these sites and start getting a grasp of how to get the most out of it, what moves the people who frequent these websites.
Courage
It takes a good pair to depend solely on your potential inventions to make a living. Some people can’t take it, and end up going back to their full-time job, effectively lowering the amount of time and energy they can dedicate to their passion.
You need to prepare yourself mentally, and remind yourself just how much work it takes just for you to have faith in yourself and your ideas. This will keep you motivated and encourage you to keep doing what you know it’s best for you.
Persistence
Failing is not a concept that will apply to you. You need to keep that in mind: If you go into this kind of work with a winning/losing mentally, you’re going to feel disappointed if an invention doesn’t work out.
If an invention doesn’t work out, you can always reinvent it, work around its flaws. And if it’s impossible to sell or make, you have to know when to let go and work on something else. Don’t let yourself become obsessed with something that is not viable.
Understanding other opinions
As much as it can offend you or shock you that a great idea or invention just won’t sell, or even worse, is not received the way you expected it to be, you need to understand that just because you see and know that your idea is good, doesn’t mean that other people are gonna feel the same way.
Everybody’s different: Don’t expect everyone to have the same priorities you have, and don’t take criticism too hard: it’s their loss.