You put 3 things into an invention, product or startup: you put your time, you put money, but there is this third thing, this ancient yet relevant word, called Wisdom, that is vitally important for inventors & entrepreneurs.  And of these 3 things, Wisdom is the most important.  

 

There's an old proverb that says that wisdom is more valuable than gold.  And that's really true if you think about it.  It doesn't matter if you're a multi-billion dollar corporation or a one-person micro business; if you don't acquire the wisdom first, you will take that time and money and likely throw it down a hole. Why? The answer is extraordinarily simple yet missed by so many: if you don't have the wisdom first, you won't know where to spend the time and money, and will end up blindly spending them the wrong places. 

 

Don't confuse wisdom with just being really smart. There's a big difference between wisdom and knowledge. Knowledge will tell you that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom tells you not put it in a fruit salad. 

 

How do you acquire this valuable wisdom? By taking survivable risks and learning from the mistakes, and by surrounding yourself and learning from others who have already made those mistakes.