Invention as Capital Creation Machine

"During his time at the University of California, Berkeley, Masayoshi Son thought, “It would take many years to save up starting capital for a business through part-time jobs. I have to make money through invention.” And he mandated himself to “continue to make one invention per day for a year.” He calculated that if what he came up with was practical, he could expect an income of over one million yen a month from patent royalties."

"Create “a hen that lays golden eggs” instead of just “golden eggs” In the first one or two months after starting “one invention a day,” ideas kept coming. But then, he ran out of topics. So, Masayoshi Son changed his approach. He thought of inventing the “thought system of invention,” that is, “a system that creates inventions.” If he could establish this, it would be the greatest invention itself. The idea was to create a hen that lays golden eggs rather than just the golden eggs."

"The one that was narrowed down became the prototype of an electronic organizer commercialized by Sharp. Masayoshi Son holds the patent for this product. The prototype invented by Masayoshi Son was a “multi-language translator with a speech device.” When Japanese is input via a keyboard, its translation is output as speech. It was an idea combining a dictionary, a computer’s speech synthesizer, and a calculator."

"The method Masayoshi Son came up with was an “invention” as a means of creating capital, rather than just earning pocket change. The idea was to invent, sell the patents of new products, and start business with the royalties. The fruit of that effort was the invention of the “voice-equipped multilingual translator” (mentioned later), which he sold to Sharp for about 100 million yen."