The inventor as entrepreneur

REVIEWS BY JOHN T. SLANIA

The popular image of an inventor is of someone who is also an entrepreneur, since our notion of a successful inventor is not a nameless researcher designing products for a big corporation such as General Electric or IBM. Instead, we envision a person who invents something that changes lives, then becomes rich and famous. Think Bill Gates or Steven Jobs. A trio of new books examines the concepts of invention, entrepreneurism and branding, each aspiring to educate and inspire.

Where it all began

One of the original inventor/entrepreneurs was Thomas Edison, who developed electric light, the phonograph and the first motion picture camera. His life and accomplishments are captured in vivid detail in The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World. Author Randall E. Stross, a business professor and columnist for The New York Times, writes a lively narrative illustrating how Edison used his talent as an inventor to become a successful businessman.

Raised in a household of modest means, Edison displayed an entrepreneurial bent early, when at age 12, he took a job as a newsboy on a train. He soon was selling fresh produce to hungry passengers, and by age 15, publishing a newspaper. Young Edison also worked as a telegraph operator and held a steady job with Western Union in his late teens. But Edison possessed an inquisitive mind and tinkered in his chemistry lab in his spare time. By age 21, he had created inventions to improve telegraph technology, stock price tickers and fire alarms. He also invented a vote recorder he planned to sell to federal and state legislatures. But when it was a financial failure, Stross writes that Edison learned a valuable lesson: "that invention should not be pursued as an exercise in technical cleverness, but should be shaped by commercial needs." Thus, the genesis of the inventor/entrepreneur, which Edison represented in the fullest, as he not only knew how to invent widely popular consumer products (ultimately holding 1,093 patents), but also was a gifted self-promoter. "Edison . . . became the first hybrid celebrity-inventor," Stross writes. "He became one of the most famous people in the world, and once fame arrived . . . he sought to use it for his own ends."


Fast-forward to the future

For would-be inventors aspiring to follow in Edison's footsteps, there is From Edison to iPod. Written by Frederick W. Mostert and Lawrence E. Apolzon, two intellectual property attorneys, the book is a comprehensive guide to protecting and profiting from your inventions. It is also a quick read, filled with short chapters, sidebars and checklists and illustrated with examples. It's designed for the inventor who is ready to take a product to market. It covers issues such as trademarks, rights of publicity, copyrights, patents and intellectual property rights. Weighty topics, indeed. But the book is written with simple language and humor, making it enjoyable and understandable to even the causal reader. "When know-how and creativity come together and you manage to create something of intellectual value, it is a great achievement," the authors write in their introduction. "Now let's get down to the business of making sure the rights to your brainchild are protected."


One modern-day entrepreneur who has heeded this advice is Daymond John, creator of FUBU, the young, urban male fashion line. Born of humble means in Queens, New York, John has gone on to build a multimillion-dollar business and develop himself as a celebrity icon. His book, Display of Power, chronicles his rise to power and fame, and strives to inspire other young entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams. John, with the help of collaborator Daniel Paisner, writes in colorful street language: simple, sometimes dirty, but truthful and direct.

From an early age, John sought to lift himself up out of a neighborhood dominated by drugs, gangs and violence. He sold pencils, reconditioned cars and did other odd jobs to make money. But it wasn't until his mid-20s that he found his fortune when he and a group of neighborhood friends decided to create a clothing line that captured the true spirit and fashion tastes of urban youth. The new line of T-shirts, hats, jackets and other items was christened FUBU, an acronym for "for us, by us." The rest was history. "We somehow managed to build FUBU into a lifestyle brand, a line that seemed to symbolize a certain kind of success, a certain way of expressing yourself," John writes. "With each monetary success, there was also a tremendous sense of validation."


John T. Slania is a journalism professor at Loyola University in Chicago.

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