Six decades ago, a Swiss hiker named George de Mestral hiked through autumn colors with his dog.
He crossed fields covered in milkweed, purple thistles, burrs, thorny branches and floating dandelion parachutes.
In the autumn, all plants release their seeds to the winds. Others attach to animals for transport to other locations to begin anew.
When Mestral returned home, he noticed dozens of burr balls with hooks attached to his socks and his dog's fur. It took him 30 minutes to dislodge them from his clothing and the dog.
While pulling them off, he noticed each spine featured a hook at the end that embedded itself into anything passing near the plant. Anything with fur picked up the seed and transported it to new fields. His wool sock picked up the most "hooked" burrs.
He put two and two together! Voila, he created Velcro cloth fasteners. Today, we all use Velcro to secure our bicycle shoes, coats, fasten our backpacks and a thousand other uses. He became a millionaire through the "creative dynamo" spinning around in his mind.
You can look throughout history to see innovations and inventions that popped up out of nowhere by average men and women who discovered an idea "out of the blue."
By what process does an invention occur? How can you apply it to your life? What can you do with inventions you create?
Remember that everything must come from an "idea" before it can move into form.
Ideas fly around the universe waiting for someone to grab them and bring them to form. Your mind constitutes a "net" that captures ideas. You may remember that tiny, gold, winged ball in the Harry Potter books that flew around the stadium while students chased it on their broomsticks.
When that winged ball flies by your head, grab it! Write down the idea. Process it. Play with it. Move it into form. It might be an idea for a magazine article if you are a writer. It might become a book. If you make jewelry, you may create a stunning ring or necklace. If you create macramé, you may discover a new design. You may create a new painting, poem or sculpture. You might design a new bicycle, airplane, car or boat.
In whatever realm you play, those ideas buzz around your head. Capture them like Harry Potter captured the tiny, gold ball with wings.
Never allow anyone to deter you or rain on your parade!
Years ago, a man attempted to make a "cooler" beach shoe that stayed on peoples' feet. He made it out of rubber with a cinch on the back. He offered it in many colors.
Naysayers said, "That's so ugly; it's a crock!"
So, he named it a "Croc" and you know the rest of the story: billions of people wear his beach Crocs!
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