The Mindset of an Inventor

I’ll admit it, I’m a chronic planner. Since I was old enough to write, I’ve filled journals from cover to cover with ideas, schemes and plans – belated apologies to my childhood friends who played my unassuming test subjects.

Initially, I thought I wanted to be an inventor (yes, like Professor Floop from Spy Kids or Edna Mode from The Incredibles. They were – and still are – my inspirations.) and to this day I still consider myself one (I’ve just invented a membership called Impossible Incubator, which essentially helps other people invent and live out their wildest dreams).

NOTE: Add ‘Inventor’ to my business card please, Barbara.

But now I’m realising that while it is a great strength to have new ideas and inventions all the time, the greatest strength is in following through on a plan. The greatest plan in the world is no use if it’s never put to work. I have to wonder how many life-changing inventions have never come to fruition because the inventor never made it out of the drawing-room.

Here’s how I made things happen up to this point: I just tried stuff.

And I failed a bunch of times. And I’m sure as anything I will fail many more times in the future.

In 2001 I made an “air hostess bag” (a suitcase with wheels) using a cardboard box and a set of bicycle training wheels and carried it around for 20 minutes before it fell apart.

In 2003 I made an eco-friendly marble run out of toilet roll tubes and a hot glue gun and gave it my friend Tim for his 8th birthday (this was back before eco-friendly was trendy yet. He wasn’t impressed.)

In 2007 I sold homemade cookies on the side of the road and I didn’t even sell one (although I did get invited to join the local baptist church – I declined).

In 2004 I started a ‘makeup company’ with my friend Ruth, it was called Mischief Makeup (or MMU, our secret code at school) and we made blush and eyeshadow from grinding up different coloured chalk with her mum’s cheese grater).

In 2011 I started a 2 man dance crew where the other member almost never showed up to practice.

In 2015 I started a food charity for homeless people in Wellington but it only ran for one night.

In 2017 I started an ethical vegan t-shirt line and I *only* sold two t-shirts.

In 2018 I started a travel blog until I realised I didn’t want to be a travel blogger.

None of them worked.

But who knows what hundreds of other ideas WOULD have worked, if only I’d got them off the paper and into the world?

Like my water-alarm doorbell (2005) or my school cheerleading team (2008), or my treehouse (minus the tree) in the backyard (2007) or my robot suit (2002), or my before-school disco parties (2012) or my alcohol-free party drink (2015) or my thermal-lined jeans (2016) or my online Instagram course (2018)? I’ve got evidence that I spent hours planning out of all of these ideas in journals, and now they’re sitting in a cardboard box in my Mum’s garage collecting dust. Rest in peace, robot suit.

But the proof is in the pudding! According to my definitely not fact-checked source, the original saying is “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” In other words, you’re only going to find out if something works if you try it.

Don’t you just adore those wild and wacky inventors who just TRY stuff, knowing that they’ll probably fail? They are so dedicated to their smell-gun or their time machine or their dog-translator idea that they never seem to give up trying different ways to make it work.

What if you gave yourself permission to just start trying stuff? Start the blog. Write the book. Build the Spy Den. Open the shop. Make the jewelry.

No one wants to hear the story of the inventor who had the perfect plan and it worked the first time.

You’ve got brilliant ideas buried inside you. Bring them to life, watch them die and try again! Enjoy the process. Believe in your magic. Have patience. Never give up.

That is the mindset of an inventor.