The decision of what to invent is more conscience than most believe. Inventions often revolve around your life, work and interests. It is an important decision to make because you will end up spending a lot of time in a specific industry doing research on companies, competitive products and trends. If you are going to be spending days of internet research and lots of money to understand a market it should be transferable into future inventions.

Our clients want to make money on inventions. This is often dependent on the market as much as timing, product features and any other variables. Choosing an area to invent in where the typical customer will feel a problem, look for a solution and be able to pay for a solution is important.

We also invent to make the world better, easier and more fun (or a different positive like safe, affordable etc.). This drive to make the world better is what draw me into my second invention industry child safety. The better the cause, the easier it is to build a team, get early financing (not necessarily large, later financing) and the better you can feel about it.

So where would I invent next??? I am not exactly sure but I’ll give you some idea…

Hobby or Fun: I love to ski, am a very good skier and so hanging out on a ski hill and talking to skiers about a product would be a blast. Same with sailing and golf, although my skill level is not as high.

Safety: I am still drawn to the safety market although I think I would focus on emergencies and weather issues.

Modern Life: What I mean is the information overload and tools to help organize the hectic life that we all live these days.

Environmental: I’d like to do something with the greening up of the world, but not exactly sure about what to do. I’d be in the “bringing technology to consumers” area, not developing the technology.

Where would you invent next?