Why did not I invent the toothbrush that made 10's of millions?

(initial draft)
Today I just read this story
http://jan.ocregister.com/2011/04/03/where-do-entrepreneurs-get-their-ideas/57069/
about a man who patented a toothbrush for kids that lights up. The linked article is good because it explains how the inventor came up with the idea.

I think it's always a great question to ask "why did I not do that?". What am I missing out? How can I up my game? And to compare all your methods and see if they are up to inventing that product.

Basically it is a toothbrush that lights up. Kids love it and it makes them spend time brushing their teeth, the light goes out when they are done.

He used the methods that I mentioned in my last posts, finding what is popular, and mixing it with an old existing product. He pointed out that he noticed lights are very popular and so added them to toothbrushes.

And (above all) noticing an unexpected good result that come about by accident when his daughter was playing. Being alert to notice both potential  problems and unexpected possible results - pays off a lot in creativity. The more problems you can collect the better.  The more of what is popular - the better. So down to the stores and see what is selling, which parts of them could you use in other inventions? Note I used the word "potential" - as you don't want to judge immediately whether it is a good problem or a good result. Just record them all before you forget - you can evaluate them later. A night's sleep can often get your subconscious to work on it for you, allowing you to think more clearly about it the next day (a great book about this is "Hare brain tortoise mind" by psychologist Guy Claxton).

I think it's always a numbers game. This is part the public often miss when they try inventing. They are not alert enough and they don't collect or go looking for problems to solve. They wait until it comes to them, and  by chance they are alert enough to spot it that time when it occurs. I am sure many people wanting to be inventors, would have had problems getting their kids to brush their teeth. But how many would have noted that items with lights were popular, and esp. how many would have noted it as a problem to try to solve.

Some ideas may seem very obvious and you may be temped to assume they would have been done before. This is what I may have thought about the brush idea. But it is worth a quick check, partly because it is pretty easy now with google, and also because if you check enough of them, one of them is going to pay off, one will not have been invented before. It's only time. And if you are mixing it with some new technology new, like a light, there is a fair chance it's not been done yet.

What  I would not do, is start doing any work on something without first checking it has not already been done or patented, that is just been too optimistic. All the work would be wasted if someone has already done that product! When checks are so easy to do - it is crazy not to.

Good advise is to come up with many ideas, write them down. After sleeping on it, decide which ones really utter rubbish and bin them. Then check the remaining ones to see if they have been done before on google, quickly, say no more than 10 mins to check each one. To become an ideas machine. It does not have to take that long to check if an idea has been done before on google. An effective way is often to use the picture search. E.g. you can picture search "children's toothbrush", and immediately get an idea of what is out there, your competition. Having narrowed the list down this way you then have a list of potentials you can work with.

I think it's best to keep them simple. And you do this by trying to solve everyday problems, like kids and toothbrushes. I don't have a link but  I have heard of  British woman who made a fortune from patenting a new type of duster that can get into difficult gaps. She got it by first finding a problem - then  trying different ideas out for how to solve it. If she had thought, "oh somebody would have done this before", she would not have made her fortune.

Many ideas do not make a fortune, but can still get a decent income. One example of this is a new type of guitar pick invented that was mentioned on www.inventright.com Some guitar people liked it, and so it sold to  some of them. Naturally not as big as dusters or toothbrushes, but enough to give some nice extra spending money. Especially if it is licenced, which cuts out most of the work for the inventor.

Successful entrepreneurs will tell you in the end only the market can tell you just how well a product will do. Even after doing all the checks (which you still must do) it is still possible the idea may not do so well. This is another type of numbers game. Maybe 1 in 3 of your inventions will hardly sell at all, and 1 in 10 will very much more than expected.

A good lesson form the toothbrush example is to get feedback from potential customers. As his child liked it, it was a good sign. I am sure there could be other ways to keep kids involved in the brushing process. But  kids will like some more than others. And for sure you want the invention they are most likely to like the most.   He found it by accident. You could experiment to make sure. That's how you make 10's of millions.

Design by evolution, feedback and prototypes

(Initial daft of blog, feedback still welcome)

All too often corporations (and individuals) design something in detail, and then want it built. It can become their grand plan, with many ideas incorporated. This is in some corporations an industry standard method of design.

Compare this to making a prototype that is able to run the basic idea of what you have as quickly as possible, and then getting feedback from it. There is nothing like seeing something work in real world situations, and then learning from them. This hands on learning is invaluable. It makes it a lot easier to design something.

Charles Babbage was guilty of this. He designed a mechanical computer, he spent  much time on the design of a grand complete computer. He at one point ripped up one design because he thought it no good, to start again. If he has instead built small parts first that worked and showed his concept worked, he would have A) been inspired to carry on B) learnt lessons from seeing it in reality C) been much more likely to get investment.

People can see and understand something so much better when they can see it working. This goes for inventors, designers, and investors. This is far better than having to read pages of technical documents. Few investors will do this, and also it is hard for inventors to explain their ideas well as most are not professional writers. But to show them is a different matter.  THAT can be their main way of communication.

As a side note: there is great power in doing reviews that can pick up where we may be going wrong as quickly as possible. And in looking to learn from  mistakes uncovered. It was only when looking at a project and trying to get a handle on it, that I realized it had got too complex in the design. My love of invention meant I just kept on adding in more and more ideas, and had lost track of the core of what the idea was about in a sea of ideas. These ideas were good and were worth returning to, but I needed to know the core ideas, and to get them tested on real world data.

It's fun to get feedback, and to play with something. It keeps you in flow, because feedback is good for the soul.