Everybody has great ideas. The world is full of people with great ideas that have gotten nowhere. If all the ideas thought up and dropped were miraculously revived and made into reality, wed probably have world peace, hungry children would be a thing of the past, our cars would be running on air without losing horsepower and thered be about 14,000,000 new flavors of ice cream, most of which would suck, but, Girl! would we have some choices!

Truth is, one of the most conductive wires that our Creator installed in us was the one that goes to our lazy switch. You know, you get this outrageously productive idea and begin research and then you find some guy is working on the idea in Poughkeepsie so you figure hes got more resources than you, and, hey, that bud of Maui Wowie looks pretty good, got a light? And that brilliance goes into the Never To Be pile while you, sitting in the dark from the electric bill you never paid, wonder why the world didnt seek you out.

Chances are, youre reading this because you really dont have anything tangible to show for your life. Like me, probably everything youve created in life has been soundly rejected no matter how brilliant was the idea.

Just an idea is not enough. People gotta see it. Okay, okay, I know, youve had those great ideas, youve made them live in the form of art, and music, and books and business proposals and defense motions, and people HAVE seen them and then said, What? and youve lost. The problem is youve followed the traditional route; youve put your hearts work out there completely and asked people to evaluate it on its merits.

Big mistake!

The most important thing that I keep going back to time and again is perception. People wont connect with what you offer unless someone else an authoritative voice -- has first deemed what you have as valuable. But theres a way to get around this. Remember, if someone cool was really behind your work, you wouldnt be reading this.

First Id like to make it perfectly clear that I am not a Lawyer. Nothing stated in these articles should be construed as legal advice. And Ill be the first person to tell you, if youre foolish enough to follow directions you get from the Internet without checking with someone who knows better, thenwell, let me tell you about my consultation services to help you get within the top 100 choices from the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes (TM? See, I do try.). If you havent figured it out by yourself, I offer nothing, nor do I claim to offer anything of value, except the word perception.

In fact, what got me into this chapter was I tried to patent the word perception. This too was one of my failures, but what it did was teach me how life works. I learned you cant patent a word but you can Copyright a series of words, and you can Patent an idea.

(Thats a warning, Buster! If I see this for sale as an e-book by anyone but me youre gonna be praying to meet Johnny Cochrans clone.)

I also learned that you can take any idea, sketch it out as a diagrammed invention, put some descriptive phrases in writing and submit it to the Patent Office and, after paying a nominal filing fee (Look, I never promised my advice wouldnt cost you money!), receive a Patent Pending.

Of course its not THAT easy. Itll take you a good evenings work to get it together.

Basically, this means someone will look at it as soon as youre ready to submit a complete Patent Application and pay a lot of money. But in the meantime, youve established a date where YOU ARE THE FIRST. Even if youre not, itll look that way to the untrained observer. And remember also, your primary clientele will most probably be untrained observers because theyre not the experts. But, once again, I cant stress the importance of honesty. I have stressed that before, havent I? Maybe not, but trust me on this one; when all else fails, be honest.

The idea is youre letting the world know you got a smokin idea and WILL be rich from it and YES, ITS WORTHWHILE because the PATENT OFFICE is examining it. This is called Instant Cachet.

You only need one patent pending to boost your perception in the eye of the beholder. Then, its a matter of carrying the acceptance letter from the Patent Office around wherever you go. When youre hustling for work in your field (and youre always hustling, arent you?), you can always flash it, Yeah, as a matter of fact, I just got this from the Patent Office.

Just make sure you keep your thumb over the date.