Look in the Mirror: Do You See an Inventor?

In making small talk last weekend with the friend of a friend, I mentioned that I was interested in invention and inventors. He looked a bit surprised, and then he said that he had five patents. I was interested, of course, so he went on to explain that he had worked for a while at a couple of engineering firms. He stated that he had invented several devices — different kinds of pumps, mostly — five of which had been patented. He also admitted, with some regret, that they were filed under the company name, not his own.

This got me thinking about what makes someone an inventor. Is it the number of patents that you hold in your own name? Is it simply the number of patents you hold, regardless of whose name is on the form? Do you have to be working independently, slaving away alone in your basement or garage after a full day of work at your regular job like Dr. Robert Kearns, the inventor of the variable speed windshield wiper, and protagonist of the movie, Flash of Genius?

No one will deny that Art Fry is an inventor. He is widely credited with the invention of Post-it® Notes, but neither he nor his boss claims that he did it all by himself. He was part of a team that spent part of their work time exploring possibilities for the new adhesive materials available to them at 3M. Another scientist, Dr. Spencer Silver, had developed the stick-um, but Fry found a good use for it.

I got to thinking about the inventions of people who don’t claim to be inventors, like teacher Abby Brown, who thought that her fidgety 6th graders would do better in school if they could stand up to do their schoolwork instead of being required by the school environment to sit down and be quiet. She worked with a local manufacturer to bring the product from idea to reality. Now that company has many orders for the “Stand up School Desks” from all around the country.

And what about someone who makes something for themselves to serve their particular need, or simply adapts an existing tool or do something that the commercially available tool can’t do? The more I thought about it, I decided that these folks are inventors, too, even if they have no patents, and would never call themselves inventors.

So, I mused, what makes an inventor an inventor? Is there a set of characteristics that mark inventors and separate them from the rest of us? My reading revealed lots of characteristics that I’ve organized under the following nine categories.

Problem solvers: Inventors love problems. Unlike most of us, the inventive personality actually seeks out what doesn’t work, what gives people fits, or what prevents a smooth flow in a system. In a New Yorker article about David Levy, he was shown as someone who strolls through the drug store “looking for trouble.” What he’s looking for is existing products that attempt to resolve perpetually intractable problems. Take pet hair, for example. Just think of all of the products available that attempt to help you to remove pet hair from your clothing or furniture. Levy’s always looking for opportunities to actually solve those difficult problems once and for all with a new product.

Motivated: Right up there with being attracted to problems is the level of the motivation of inventors. You can call it motivated, determined, or even driven, but most inventors show an almost compulsive focus on their problem or product. Again, Robert Kearns with his many patents comes to mind.

Creative: This one feels familiar to many readers here. Being original, having a great imagination and fluency with ideas and many novel ideas, when balanced with a flexibly open mind and a resilient attitude helps the inventor to come up with many new ideas, and not become too attached too soon to any one solution. If an idea works well and if it is or can be made attractive to others, the inventor can be successful.

Curious: If you are a people watcher, you may be a latent inventor. Do you have wide interests, like to observe, notice details, seek patterns, and have empathy with people who are struggling with a problem in a supermarket or talking about a challenge as you listen in on a conversation at the next table in a café? You’re not a busy-body; you’re just an inventor looking for way to be helpful!

Optimistic: Inventing is not for the faint of heart. There will be many disappointments and failures. How many times did Edison try and fail to get it right with the light bulb? His many failures are quickly forgotten in the glow of his brilliant successes. The important part is that he optimistically carried on until his light bulb worked as he wanted. Inventors believe steadfastly that their problem is solvable. Being optimistic helps, and so does the next characteristic:

Self Confident: Not only do they believe that the problem can be solved, inventors are pretty sure that they’re the ones who can solve it. Maybe you’re a risk taker, a skeptic who doubts the conventional wisdom, or a person with little respect for experts and authorities. If this sounds like you, you may be a prospective inventor.

Resourceful: You’ll need broad skills to be an inventor. Most have a good memory to keep track of the challenges and problems they’ve observed; an ability to synthesize their experiences and what they’ve learned; an analytic ability, to see patterns in the data, and get to the nub of the problem; and an integrative agility to put it all together. Inventors sometimes, but not always, have strong mechanical or technical abilities. It also helps if you have some business savvy.

Hardworking: If all this sounds like hard work, you’re right. The inventors I read about were credited with being hard workers, perseverant, and tough. They were willing to take responsibility for a project as well as being willing to take risks. They were okay with the ambiguity of not being immediately successful.

Eccentric: Not all inventors are eccentric geniuses, but sometimes people without their curiosity, passion, and focus find them a bit self-absorbed and isolated. On the other hand, many inventors are deeply collaborative and social. Their lack of respect for the way it’s always been done can cause them to be seen by others as arrogant, but that can be because they have ideas that challenge the status quo.

If this sounds a lot like you, don’t despair. You’re in the good company of Edison, Silver and Fry, and Kearns, and those like Abby Brown who don’t call themselves inventors. You have a special view of the world and your place in it, and you don’t need a patent to claim your rightful title: INVENTOR… Imagine that!

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