It is amazing how many innovators and inventors are busy trying to strike it rich, rather than to put in the legwork and the hard work ethic it takes to bring their products or innovation to market. One thing I have found as the coordinator for a think tank is that we are constantly learning about new concepts, ideas, and inventions.

Many of the people that come up with these great new revolutions are so busy trying to score venture capital to launch the next great big company (to get rich) that they aren't willing to do the legwork in the beginning. Not long ago, I was hit up by just such an innovator for a couple of million dollars, perhaps, they saw me as a piece of red meat or an Angel Investor.

That's all fine and good, but in discussing this with the individual, I learned he didn't have a prototype completed, and only wanted to put in $200,000 of his own money, and that he would only put in that money after he secured four or five million in venture capital. His invention was something that would be truly a disruptive technology for the industry, and once he had proved concept with a decent prototype. Yes, it was a great idea and something that everyone in the industry would want almost immediately.

What completely bothered me is that if he was really interested in investing $200,000, he could build the original prototype and say; "see here it is," and then he could secure venture capital extremely easily, if he had a decent business plan, and the patent to match. However, he wanted to skip the steps which included having him actually build the prototype with his own money, and creating the business plan. Rather, what he wanted was someone to give him a whole bunch of money to launch on this whole future project.

Let me explain to everyone out there that these are no longer the "Dot Com days" and that we are in a recession, and every new startup company is competing for that venture capital money. The VC are only going to invest in things that have patents, prototypes, and other funding already in place, and those owners must have skin in the game.

Let this be a lesson to everyone out there, if you are a lazy entrepreneur, your days are over, it's time to get busy and get to work and get off your butt. No way in hell would I or any wise angel investor who is self made ever invest in the company like that, because they aren't even willing to invest in themselves. Please consider all this.