Millions from the Mind

Alan R. Tripp

Excerpts

On this page are just a very few of the "Undeniable Facts," "Lessons Learned," "Words to the Wise," "Been There's," and "Done That's" that leap off of practically every page in the book. To the right the menu gives you access to some more complete passages of the text. These are not the highlights of the book, just a brief sample. With these excerpts we hope you'll realize why Jack Lander, an Inventors' Digest columnist, went from "not having any time for reading" to finishing it in record time, "the book is so good that it sucks one in, and is hard to put down." Enjoy the excerpts, we hope your mouth will water for the whole thing and you won't be able to keep yourself from clicking the Order button!

Been There... Gradually, there formed in Herb Allen's mind a set of requirements for the ideal cork-remover. It should automatically center the screw over the cork. It should require minimum physical effort. It should do minimum damage to the cork itself. It should be so different from prior devices that it would provide a strong patent position. It should be easy to understand and use.

Undeniable Fact: Nothing sells itself.

- Lessons Learned -
If you can't get the product into the normal channels of distribution, you'll sell it through unconventional routes until it has proved itself.

Undeniable Fact: The overwhelming majority of patents are, for a wide variety of reasons, never turned into products.

...Done That "I design the machine to suit myself, the inventor. I design the financial arrangements to suit the buyer." Sanford Redmond

Undeniable Fact: It's the new-new product with a new-new concept that not only wins but sustains earnings for years.

Been There... "Financial people see hundreds of plans and they all say they'll make millions. Why should someone believe that what you have written is the truth? Answer that and you'll have a good shot at winning inventors!" Alan Toffler

Undeniable Fact: When you introduce a product that is out of the range of the customer's prior experience you frequently can't go by what people say or even by what they do in a short test.

Words to the Wise - Keep the focus on the most feasible opportunity and make that product irresistible to those customers who matter most. it's a formula start-uppers should take to heart.

Undeniable Fact: Many an invention owner would like to sell out and go fishing, but in my experience that seldom happens---unless the end product is already a substantial success in the marketplace.

Undeniable Fact: You could hardly find a more difficult field in which to make your fortune than creating inventions to sell or to license to the automobile companies.

Been There... Nobody believed that this little advantage would influence a brand buying decision enough to justify even a tiny royalty payment to me. Quite possibly, they were right.

Undeniable Fact: In the beginning, nobody knows you. Nobody knows your technology or product. Nobody has a strong reason to believe in you.

Undeniable Fact: To understate it, making any money, let alone millions, from invention requires a lot of thought. Traps are everywhere.

...Done That In the light of the universal yawn from potential licensees, it hardly seemed worth my while to file an interference and argue the date of invention.

Undeniable Fact: When an invention has traveled the road from concept to finished product, it is still only a dream, a speculation, an unfinished symphony. Until the product succeeds in the marketplace, it is nothing but a footnote in the history of ingenuity.

- Lessons Learned -
You should almost always go to more than one company with your presentation.

Undeniable Fact: Any company president who believes that his R&D department has a corner on all the good ideas in his field is---well, in need of a quick treatment for self-delusion.

Undeniable Fact: It would seem good business for more company managers to turn their best legal and public relations brains loose on devising a system for looking into the inventive minds beyond the corporate gates.

Words to the Wise: - Few companies make idea-theft their policy, but since your company can be hurt by the actions of a few individuals, protect your company reputation with a clear written policy on this point

 "Millions..." Pages

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