Ok, now we start with the first secret:
Generate ideas and take your ideas seriously!
I will say that every person on the planet comes up with brilliant ideas once in a while. That is of course also true for let us say professional people working as engineers/researchers. However, many also believe that oneself is an “Average-Joe” and just my ideas, I come up with “must be simple and well known to all other persons on the planet”. But hold on … how many people actually work with the tasks/topics/subjects you are working on for, say the last years? If you think about it, it is probably not so many that you would expect from the beginning.
What does that really means? Well, you might be a World class expert in your task/topic/subject ?! And world class people, they can make inventions, right? So don’t be shy!
Of course every idea you come up with is not new and inventive, but if you start by thinking ”no” and censor you own ideas without further investigations, you will miss a lot of good ideas that might be novel and inventive and hence patentable!
So, next time you come up with a brilliant idea, think “yes”, not “no”!