Conquering the Chaos of Creativity: Doug Patton’s Big Idea That Might Change The World
Whatever idealism you think you have must always be multiplied by 100. Idealism is fueled by vibrant intellectual energy that powers the soul and spirit of your invention process. This idealism is maintained not only through daily vigilance, but also through years of walking the path of the creative warrior.
As a part of my series about “Big Ideas That Might Change The World In The Next Few Years” I had the pleasure of interviewing Doug Patton.
Doug Patton is an esteemed industrial designer who was an inventor featured on Simon Cowell’s American Inventor. He has created over 300 products in 20 international market categories and has received over 150 patents and international design awards. Doug frequently works with companies like Apple, Microsoft, Disney, IBM, and Mercedes-Benz. It is his mission to inspire others to live more authentic lives by sharing his unique creative problem-solving process.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you please tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
As far back in my life as I can remember, I have viewed art and science as one in the same — a part of the inseparable whole of creativity involving a highly imaginative process.
As early as the 1st grade, I would win national art contests and science fairs, intuitively designing concepts. In college, I changed majors many times, easily switching between modalities. I didn’t feel at home in any one department; instead, my mind took me from avenue to avenue in search of creative grandeur.
One day, a visiting professor in my art class said something to me that would change my life. I had been creating a kinematic sculpture, molding clear plexiglass with the goal of animating it. The professor asked me what I was doing, and when I explained my project, he told me, “You should be an industrial designer,” saying that designers used engineering, art, and design simultaneously in the process of inventing. In complete awe, I pivoted my entire path towards industrial design that day, and I never looked back.
Can you please share with us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
When I was consulting for Microsoft in the early 90s, I was working on a project that involved the translation of software ideas; I innovated applications for hardware, creating new concepts in doing so.
When asked to give a presentation one day, I used the PRM1 remote control I had created for Mitsubishi, which used a particularly sleek design, all controls situated within a pen form. After the presentation was over, Karl Schulmeister approached me and asked about the remote. At that point, the remote had received more publicity than any of Mitsubishi’s other products, as it embodied ease of use and minimalistic simplicity.
Karl startled me by saying, “I’ve seen Bill walking around with your remote in hand and asking his team, ‘Why can’t you guys make something this simple?’ I want to introduce you to Bill because I know he would want you to help him with improving the electronics experience in his new home.” Karl continued, informing me that he was working with Bill on a company Bill had created called Interactive Home Systems; it was focused on using the greatest electronic innovation possible for the home environment. With this, I began helping Bill with his home electronics.
This was the beginning of my relationship with Bill Gates, whom I consider a creative genius in his own right. In my book Conquering the Chaos of Creativity, I describe one of my first presentations to Bill that involved complex ideas hinting at an outcome. When I asked him what he thought the final concepts might be, he responded with an extraction of relevant details and accurate conclusions. At that point, I considered whether he was a mind-reader in addition to being a genius.
Which principles or philosophies have guided your life? Your career?
To me, idealism is the essential guiding philosophy. It is what fuels my unwavering passion for implementing a revolutionary new vision with regard to any concept that crosses my mind and desk.
I have sacrificed everything in my life for my idealism — finances, time, and relationships, to name a few areas. However, this pursuit of what I consider truth has paid dividends beyond reckoning. I aim to help improve humanity, whether through medical equipment innovations or faux candles that convey peace, and in that quest, I am always rewarded.
Ok thank you for that. Let’s now move to the main focus of our interview. Can you tell us about your “Big Idea That Might Change The World”?
Over the course of four decades — including designing 300+ products, innovating for 20+ market categories, and securing 150+ patents — I always felt that my attempts to improve my imagination and problem-solving would someday prove to be the most important invention I ever created — and I believe I was right.
In my career, many have tried to lead me down avenues that promised great wealth and fortune, but following any given path would have led to a focus on one product area and discontinuation of the idealized diversity of learning in the 20+ market categories I have invented in. These paths would have ultimately led me away from myself.
Today, I have hundreds of amazing inventions that have helped humanity in the market categories of medical, automotive, and consumer products, among others. However, I feel my truest success has been what I have learned by virtue of pursuing intellectual idealism, creating the tools of creativity and techniques in my problem-solving treatise Conquering the Chaos of Creativity.
As a result of promoting the book, I have been fortunate enough to speak with people the world over about imagination and creativity. The further into talks I am drawn, the more my awareness increases regarding one simple but devastating fact: our culture has not only ignored creativity, but has also promoted its converse.
What I feel might change the world is a movement that I am honored to be at the helm of, generating essential creative energy. Many dissatisfied people long to see their imagination and creativity expand. To these intrepid souls I hope to gift the creative problem-solving techniques of analysis, inspiration, spirituality/philosophy, invention, and imagination. These categories are not only concepts; they are also vast vistas of potential. They have been necessary for me as a matter of creative survival, containing all the intensity of intellectual liberation and the grit of creative battle.
How do you think this will change the world?
As these ideas expand, I hope to create a moment in which creativity and imagination provide focus within an expanding culture of awareness. What I think will truly change the world is communicating my process of creativity and imagination as well as inspiring people with the intellectual and imaginative bliss I have experienced in my own creative process.
Keeping “Black Mirror” and the “Law of Unintended Consequences” in mind, can you see any potential drawbacks about this idea that people should think more deeply about?
Historically, political structures have manipulated culture in a process of negativity with the aim of maintaining control. This has been accomplished through military force, social rules, and even subversion of religion to further individuals’ Machiavellian desires. Today, this process is much the same, but it has become even more focused on social media, news, and social structures.
The unfortunate goal of most political systems is to maintain tight control over people’s minds and society through education, which creates ideological confinement conferring comfort, not enlightenment. People exist in ideological boxes, for the most part, completely negating creativity within the unconscious control exerted over their daily experience. The more I advance with regard to innovation, the more I become convinced not that society has forgotten creativity and imagination, but that it has consciously forsaken them.
Unfortunately, we are quickly entering into a Black Mirror-esque scenario in keeping with this.
My attention is focused not on the petty pessimism that could be discussed in this regard, but instead on what the present gives us an opportunity to gain. There have been brief sparks of the status quo being ripped asunder throughout history, such as in the French Revolution and hippie era, but imagine what it would be like if the creative power and enlightenment from these periods were perpetual. Imagine what could ensue if creativity and imagination were taught in school from the very beginning and it was made clear that they are our most important assets.
If we can embrace creativity as a new revolutionary moment in the history of humanity, we can upset the balance of society. Doing so can cause the mind to blossom. It can empower the soul to fly free. We would be able to successfully thwart the media’s control over our lives, questioning everything in our quest for creative idealism and thereby entering a new era of humanity.
Was there a “tipping point” that led you to this idea? Can you tell us that story?
There has been no tipping point per se, as the process has been a powerful, slowly-breaking wave that has surged over decades of recording my ideas and using them to construct the ultimate authoritative guide that is Conquering the Chaos of Creativity.
Ever since the book came out, a great deal of discussion has been created with interviews, articles, and emails. In these is the aforementioned theme that people don’t know how to achieve creativity in their lives, constantly frustrated the world hasn’t given them the tools they need to succeed.
If anything, the tipping point, then, is the publication of the book, and that is just the tip of the iceberg — the beginning of an unyielding story.
What do you need to lead this idea to widespread adoption?
My responses to the amazing questions in this article and the exposure generated from other publications are essential for connecting people to the various aspects of creativity the book discusses. Beyond this, I encourage people to pursue the intrinsic call to be creative, expanding their abilities. Answering this beckoning from deep within is needed for creativity to take its rightful place in society.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)
I interpret this question from the perspective of when I began venturing down the path of passionate idealism.
- I wish someone had told me how courageous you must be in pursuit of innovative excellence; the status quo of society, by its very nature, both resists and halts creativity.
— Early in my career, I invented a means of injecting a foldable intraocular lens into the capsular bag of your eye for cataract surgery, creating a company called Patton Medical. My aim was to revolutionize cataract surgery, as until that point, a glass lens was inserted when a cataract was removed with a large incision. Upon patenting and presenting my concept to the ophthalmic companies of the world, almost all surgeons and companies disregarded it, stating that though it would help patients, there was not enough reason to implement it. It took over 10 years for these ideas to be adopted through my idealistic pursuit. Today, every cataract surgery around the world utilizes my concept. - Whatever idealism you think you have must always be multiplied by 100.
— Idealism is fueled by vibrant intellectual energy that powers the soul and spirit of your invention process. This idealism is maintained not only through daily vigilance, but also through years of walking the path of the creative warrior.
— In all you do, you must move ahead bearing the scars of failure, confident in the knowledge that this will make you stronger and more successful. The level of energy required for this has crushed many, but after fighting hundreds of creative battles, I find that the creative inertia of my idealism has expanded. - The path of idealism is the most challenging path that anyone can walk in life. I believe the hardest possible path that can be taken in life is pursuing an idealistic vision, taking it from concept to reality successfully. Doing this once or twice in one’s life is difficult, but I have done this hundreds of times, unrelenting in over 20 market categories and with regard to hundreds of patents. My life’s story is the best example I can think of for this truth.
- The fight to create revolutionary designs and inventions is incessant. We are all innately creative and highly imaginative. Traditionally, society has not taught this to most, but after decades of daily dedication to creative invention, I am fortunate to say it has been my greatest pleasure to bask in the creative joy of daily innovation.
— Circumstances most see as unnerving challenges now allow me to dance with the energy I have generated using daily idealism. The fight has become a flowing dance of creativity that is not only incessant, but also as effortless as breathing. - The physical and mental energy required to give equal attention to your idealism and family is extraordinary, so you must be vigilant, never allowing your energy to fade.
— Early in my career, I was greatly successful, helping create supercomputers for McDonnell Douglas as well as revolutionary inventions for Apple. This required me to work very long hours. During this time, my daughter Heather was born, and I found what I thought was an incredible amount of energy that I had put into my business had a new focus. Every morning, I would wake up at 5 a.m. to care for my daughter so my wife could sleep, work 10 hours a day, and come home to take care of my daughter. I found the tremendous joy and energy from this flowed into my goal to be a good husband and, later, into the arrival of my son Sean. In the decades that followed, I felt that I never once compromised in my love for my family, for my idealism, and for creating revolutionary new concepts.
Can you share with our readers what you think are the most important “success habits” or “success mindsets”?
In the pursuit of revolutionary idealism, one is constantly barraged with challenges on a daily basis. You will have many failures and many successes. The key is to not be depressed by your failures and to not bask in your success, but more importantly, to realize that success and failure have a yin and yang relationship that is essential in the process of pursuing creativity and idealism. Neither aspect is as important as an understanding that they are subcategories of a greater whole: the experience of pursuing new ideas. Understanding and enjoying this experience is what emboldens you, enabling you to always move forward.
Some very well known VCs read this column. If you had 60 seconds to make a pitch to a VC, what would you say? He or she might just see this if we tag them 🙂
I invite you to visit the Patton Design website, where you will see over 5 companies in development that will revolutionize the fields of medicine and home environment products. In the past, my success rate has created many companies that generate millions of dollars every year; I invite venture capitalists to contact me to discuss not only the potential of my companies, but also my ability to help them in pursuing new innovations they are interested in investing in.
The greatest investment a VC can make where Patton Design is concerned is developing a thorough understanding of the theories of creativity in Conquering the Chaos of Creativity. I ask VCs to, if interested, help me spread the word through an upcoming television and podcast series I am contemplating to educate and generate greater excitement about creativity and imagination.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
@PattonDesign
Conqueringthechaosofcreativity.com
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
Patton Design: Doug Patton’s Big Idea That Might Change The World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.