Great care, however, must be taken by the inventor in these various financial transactions, which necessarily include the making and signing of various contracts and legal instruments, that his entire invention as well as himself are not entirely absorbed by others.
As competent and reliable legal advice may not always be within his reach, he must be able to make contracts advantageously, and above all to be the possessor of a vision sufficiently penetrating to detect "the nigger in the woodpile," in any paper before he signs it.
[ CHAPTER 4
Marketing a New Invention]
The value and success of an invention depends upon its demonstrated usefulness to those for whose use it is intended, and their desire to avail themselves of the same.
It very often devolves on the inventor to give that value to it, a task which will not be found easy, especially to the novice.
The first necessary steps to force an invention into the market is to procure as many representative references from people using his invention as possible. This may necessitate placing his machine on trial for a certain length of time, and personally demonstrating its usefulness; also educating other operators to operate his machine advantageously.
VISION SUFFICIENTLY PENETRATING TO DETECT THE NIGGER IN THE WOODPILE.
The inventor will find ample opportunity to display his forebearance at this stage of the game, as he will find at the beginning, "no one poor enough to do his invention reverence." And it is one of the strange things that one observes in life, that many people who have not sufficient energy and intelligence to raise themselves beyond the very humblest and meanest occupations in life, consider themselves amply qualified to criticise, and even make suggestions on inventions that some of the best brains have spent their best on.