Focus on the Practical When Seeking to Invent

When you're inventing, focus on the practical, useful, needed and beautiful. Very often inventions and other creations start out answering to a major need or a broads interest. Then the project morphs into a personal passion with little or no market value. Whether you're a garage tinkerer or Thomas Edison, ultimately your commercial success depends on developing something which economically fills a real need and which looks attractive to potential buyers. As you develop prototypes, theories or compositions, show them to people in the market for overall attractiveness feedback.