By Patrick Raymond
Make no mistake: inventing is a solitary journey.
An idea always starts as a personal thought. It cannot happen identically in two separate minds.
Speech, images and text can help you communicate your idea to others, but as the inventor, you will always be alone in the pursuit of realizing your vision.
Of course, the difference between an idea and an invention is the work. Hard work! And this work is not only an executional challenge for most first-timers, it is also a deeply psychological one … a step into unknown emotional territory.
How do I do this? Who can I trust? What is a fair deal? Should I listen to the skeptic who thinks my idea is utterly ridiculous? Or should I listen to the believer who thinks my idea is truly amazing?
These are tough questions requiring the inventor to take daily leaps of faith into the unknown.
In any situation that forces us to face uncertainty — and in the absence of prior experience or rational knowledge – we let our emotions answer. But feelings are not always a good guide. They can change. They can be wrong.
When it comes to inventing, our emotions can swing, sometimes wildly, from optimism to despondency, from vaulting overconfidence to crushing self-doubt, from elation upon receiving a validating compliment, to sharp pain following criticism.
When introducing something new to the world, expect delays. And expect others to either support or oppose. But don’t expect them to be as emotionally invested as you are. They can’t be. It’s not their original idea.
As I evolve as an inventor myself, and as I coach other inventors, I find that about half my work involves managing purely technical aspects of the inventing process, while the other half is spent managing complex emotions and in many cases … mood swings. Including my own.
Rest assured, I’m not crazy. I’m just an inventor. And if somebody doesn’t know the difference, it means ipso facto that they’re not an inventor. Our endeavor simply comes with certain inherent occupational hazards. As I delve further into the psychology of inventing, two things are becoming evident: 1) we’re all the same and 2) we’re all alone.
If you remember the opening sequences in the movie The Shining, you’ll recall how the hotel manager warned Jack Torrance during his interview: “For some people, the solitude and isolation can be a problem in and of itself.” This proved to be a prescient warning. In the film, based on Stephen King’s novel, Jack was looking forward to time alone in the mountains to write his book, a solitary endeavor akin to an inventor’s journey. But we all know how that turned out!
Thankfully, my journey in the world of inventing did not result in wild-eyed axe wielding. Quite the contrary. It has been a blessing both personally and financially. But man! I could have done without the wild emotional roller-coaster rides along the way.
Alas, I now accept that they are unavoidable. What other profession earns public labels such as “crazy” and “genius” so interchangeably? What other profession teaches that rejection is part of the road to acceptance? Faced with such confusing signals, the inventor is forced to rely on emotion to help make decisions. Rationality is simply not enough.
This partly explains the emotional swings I routinely observe, whether among my clients or myself. Let’s be frank, we’ve all hop-scotched the emotional spectrum, which clouds our judgment and can sometimes lead to self-defeating decisions.
To keep things in balance, I’ve developed this self-assessment chart. Whenever I face a difficult decision, I try to see where I am on the chart. I used the too much/too little allegory from the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, as well as the emotional extremes described in the seminal pop-psychology book I’m OK. You’re OK.
The goal, of course, is to navigate one’s emotions straight down the Goldilocks middle, so as to give your invention project maximum chances of success, while avoiding self-defeating extremes.
On one extreme is the “too much” inventor, who risks isolation and failure due to an inability to trust and let go. In the end, the project goes nowhere because the inventor is just so darned hard on himself, and others.
On the other extreme is the “too little” inventor, one whose utter lack of self-confidence and self-reliance leads to falling prey to scams or the simplistic puffery of self-proclaimed “gurus.” In the end, that project also will go nowhere because the inventor is just so darned soft.
Patrick Raymond is founder of myinventionscore.com
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