1d • General discussion
What Are We Really Creating?
Hi,
One of the things I’ve done most of my life…
is invent “stuff.”
With an engineering background, that meant physical products.
For a long time, that was my world.
The product.
The idea.
The design.
The outcome.
And I’ve noticed that for many inventors, their focus is similar.
Products.
Patents.
Licensing deals.
Trying to make money.
I’ve had a few successes along the way…
and a few “non-successes” too.
But over time, something began to shift for me.
I started to realise…
the product wasn’t the most important part of the journey.
It was the people.
The people you meet along the way.
The people who become part of your team.
The moment it stops being my invention…
and becomes our creation.
And then something else…
The people who use what you’ve created.
How it touches their lives.
That’s where things really started to change for me.
My most successful invention was BetterBlocks —
a children’s building system.
We sold over 600 million blocks
and generated around $45 million in sales.
But that wasn’t the highlight for me.
Not even close.
The moment that stayed with me was this:
A father told my partner that because of BetterBlocks,
he sat down and played with his son
for the first time in four years.
That stopped me.
It brought a tear to my eye… and still does.
Because I realised something I hadn’t fully seen before.
Creating isn’t really about the product.
It’s about what the product makes possible in someone else’s life.
Since then, my thinking has shifted.
Creating “stuff” is one level.
But caring about people…and asking how what we create might enrich their lives…
That feels like a different level entirely.
I’m not saying one is right or wrong.
In fact, for me, focusing on the product led to a father and son coming together
in a way I could never have planned.
But these days, I find myself asking this question:
What is the real effect of what I’m creating?
Not just what it is, how does it work…
but what it does.
What effect will it have on people’s lives?
There are no guarantees on the outcomes.
But the intention behind what we create…
That matters.
With Gratitude
Warren
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What Are We Really Creating?
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