Interview With an Inventor


Stanley Mason holds more than 65 patents for his inventions and has been called the modern day Thomas Edison. He has invented such practical items as the contoured disposable diaper, the granola bar, and the squeezable ketchup bottle. He lives on a sprawling farm in Connecticut. Every room is filled with books, and papers are strewn everywhere. Mason is always involved in one invention or another.

BARRY FARBER:

How do you go about inventing something?

STANLEY MASON:

It's not very complicated. The creative process is simply trying very hard to solve a problem.

BF:

Do you spend your life looking for problems?

SM:

Always. Since I was a little child.

BF:

So problems are really opportunities to stimulate creativity?

SM:

Exactly. Who would be interested in a product that nobody wants or can use? If you want to be more creative, walk through life hunting for problems. When I go to a restaurant, I figure out, was this a good meal? Was it served efficiently? What was missing? How can it be made better? It drives my wife crazy, but it's how I view life.

It's the way I come up with all my ideas for inventions. For instance, one day I was reading Ladies Home Journal. I read at least one magazine a day. In this magazine, there was a story about a man who produced flowerpots. While doing his market research, the man discovered that 19 million American families have more than 12 plants. He also discovered that there is always at least one sick plant among the 12—not because of under-watering, which was the basic assumption, but because of over-watering.

I read this story and thought, what is the problem here? People are over-watering their plants. So I decided to make a flowerpot that would prevent you from over-watering a plant. I designed it and redesigned it and finally came up with one that worked, and I patented it. That's what it takes to make an invention: find a problem, come up with a solution, test it, retest it, redesign it, retest it—and then if it works, patent it.

BF:

Do you have any advice for aspiring inventors?

SM:

A school near me asked me to come and talk to first and second graders about inventions. They were coming up with some crazy ideas. I told them to work on solving problems. That's what an invention is. Anybody can think of an idea, but to think of an idea that solves a problem is really terrific. Now every year they have an "invention convention" and the kids come up with some fantastic problem-solvers. So that's my advice for everyone. Be hungry for solving problems.

Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that the right and left shoes were thought up only a little more than a century ago?

—Bernice Fitz-Gibbon,
advertising executive




Diamond Power. Gems of Wisdom From America's Greatest Marketer
Diamond Power: Gems of Wisdom from Americas Greatest Marketer
ISBN: 1564146987
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 207
Authors: Barry Farber

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