The Reason Why Most New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work

Hint: It’s the same reason why many Inventors’ ideas don’t become reality.

“I think there is something more important than believing: Action! The world is full of dreamers, there aren’t enough who will move ahead and begin to take the concrete steps to actualize their vision.” – W. Clement Stone

Can you remember the resolutions you made last year? Were you able to keep them? If most people were to be honest, they would say probably not. How about that idea you resolved to make happen at the beginning of this year? Where are you now compared to where you’d thought you’d be last year?

As we look over our shoulder as we near the end of this year, looking back at it like an old crumpled piece of paper, and turn our heads to look to the next one and see a fresh new sheet, we start to think about all the things we wished we had done in the past year, and all the things we really want to do in the next. If you’re an inventor, you have that idea, that drawing, prototype or project that you really want to start getting some traction on. You’ll say to yourself, “ this year it will be different. I can really see the potential in this idea and this is the year I’m going to do something. I’m going to change my career, my income and the course of my life with this invention!” All these sentiments are great, and needed. They are the fuel and lifeblood of any inventor that wants to see momentum. You need that motivation, that vision, that fire in your belly to implement the intensity and tenacity necessary to be successful. However, there is a danger here. The “want-to”, that desire to have your dream, idea or project become a money-generating reality will not take place with simply the promise to yourself that you’re going to do it. All you have at this point is a dream. What you need is a plan.

In his book EntreLeadership, Dave Ramsey talks about the fact that the difference between a dream (or what we can call our idea) and a goal is a plan. And for these goals to really be tangible goals, they must have certain components that make them real and give you traction that you can both see and feel.

First off, your goal must be specific and measureable. You can’t just say “I want to make money with my invention”. That’s just a naked dream of an idea. You have to put work clothes on it by making it specific with something like “I want to make $”x” with my invention”, or “I want to license my invention with a company”, or “I want to outsource a manufacturer and sell “x” units. When you give it specifics, something important changes for the inventor. It blows some of those clouds of abstraction away and makes you begin to see and think about how it can be done.

Secondly, they must have a time limit. Time limits can be used as a powerful tool for the inventor who needs traction to move forward. You can now take those specific measureable activities and break them down into smaller, more digestible goals with specific deadlines that you can see yourself achieving. And nothing motivates like a deadline. These time constraints also evoke discipline. We tell our inventors: you set an appointment with your invention, just like it’s an appointment with a doctor or an attorney. You tell yourself, “Thursday between 6 an 9 PM, I’m turning off the TV, getting off the couch and working on my invention”!

Also, you need to put your goals in writing. Just like documenting your invention, it is important that you write your specific plans, goals and timed milestones down. This helps you on a number of levels. When you verbalize your thoughts, you force them through one layer of understanding, and yet another layer when you write them down. This gives you an even clearer understanding of your invention and how to go about bringing it to market. Even with documenting your invention, you shouldn’t do it just for the legal record. You need to do it for you; to help you better understand what it is that you are doing and how you are going to do it. Successful inventor Rob Vorhees says “ you have to know where you are, where you want to be, and how you’re going to get there”. A written plan is the map to do just that.

If you can do these things, it will help you to make your invention something a lot more attainable than it was when it was just a dream. But remember, if you don’t do the things necessary to hit the goals within the time allotted, that goal will condemn you and call you just a dreamer.

Nobody Wants to Dance with the Wallflowers

You have to create the right product and the right perception to market your invention effectively.

“It is said that you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. But you can put some salt in his oats.” – George Godfrey.

After the last 20-plus years of living on both sides of the fence between product development and marketing, I had some validation recently from Malcolm Gladwell’s book “What the Dog Saw”. In it, he described his interview with Ron Popiel, an inventor and marketer who by himself conceived, created, and sold, among other things, the Showtime rotisserie oven to millions on TV. Now if you think Ron Popiel and only envision a campy pitchman on late-night infomercials, you may want to think again. In the last 40 years his products have pulled in over $2 Billion in sales (Yes, B as in Billion). One of the things that struck me in Gladwell’s book was the statement that the Popiel family believed it was a mistake to separate product development from marketing. “Developing and marketing a product are like left and right feet,” says Popeil. “They both have to work for the product to succeed.” In his mind, the product that sold best was the one that sold itself. And in his infomercials, his marketing effort completed the walk all the way into the consumers’ kitchens.

So much of bringing an invention to market successfully is building on the right foundation, a solid foundation that you can hold firmly to when you go to market. And so many of the important steps successful inventors take early on are an integral part of the later ones. What I’m saying here is that you need to have done your homework before you go to market. And by homework I mean researching and making sure the invention you’re about to invest your time and money into has a good chance of success. You need to pick the lowest hanging fruit of both an invention that has a high degree of success and one that you are able to execute. You must have a clear understanding of your marketplace and an even clearer, concise plan about how you’re going to enter that marketplace. You must remember that the inventor serves the consumer. And you do that by proving to yourself that you know what they really want – not just what you think they might want – and be able to deliver it in a way that they’ll want to buy into. And sometimes that means modifying or even completely changing your idea along the way.

I believe that one of the best ways to get kick started into a market, even if your ultimate goal is licensing or selling to a large company, is to be able to cheaply produce a small number of the product and get it into that market, especially if you can find a niche market to start with (this is why first choosing the right invention that you can tackle and bring to market is so important). This is your foothold, your Normandy, your beachhead. Once you can gain that foothold, something amazing begins to happen. When you actually begin to sell products and money begins to change hands, you have made your invention a real product that is selling. This can have a powerful effect on you, your invention and even the market itself. Potential distributors or licensees that would not give you the time of day back when you had an idea on a napkin or in a frankentype are now suddenly sitting up and taking notice.

Even if marketing is not what you have done before, you can learn to do it, just like any skill, and I believe it is a great skill to acquire. Everyone is bad at something until they learn how to do it, and then practice it enough. If, on the other hand you absolutely do not want to go there, I highly urge you to do two things: learn everything about marketing that you can anyway, and then hire or partner with someone who is good at marketing. But remember, you can’t communicate with the natives until you learn their language. So unless you learn everything you can about marketing, any hired or partnered relationship can and will typically end badly due to miscommunication.

So the auditorium is full, and the band is beginning to play. Now it’s time to decide if you’re going to stand along the wall or get out there and dance.