NewWHAT’S
36% of those 55–64 say no. WOULD YOU LEAVE YOUR JOB FOR ONE THAT PAYS MORE?
Source: Adecco Workplace Insights Survey
Be the next Edison! It’s easier than you think BY LAURA DAILY Trends Cash In on Your Ideas
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY ODOCHI IBE. FROM TOP: POLL ILLUSTRATION
BY NICHOLAS BLECHMAN; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JOE ZEFF DESIGN
You have a great idea, but
you need to take it from brain
to bank. Now may be the time to
try, because your odds of success
can increase with age, says Wendy
Robbins, a New Mexico–based
inventor and consultant to other
creative types. At press time, about
60 percent of The United Inventors
Association of America members were
50 or older, estimates executive director
Mark Reyland, and overall membership
had grown 243 percent in a little over a
year. “Older adults have more
experience, plus the insight
and persistence to get a product
to market,” says Jeffrey Dobkin,
president of Philadelphia’s Ameri-
can Society of Inventors and author
of How to Market a Product for Under
$500! You can make money, but don’t
expect to get rich. Sure, after two years
of development, George Weiss, 85, of
Brooklyn, has sold 20,000 copies of his
word game Dabble. But more common
are inventors like Sher Gregory, 54, of
