EVERYONE WANTS to be an inventor. So when I had the opportunity to test-drive an idea at Quirky, a company that helps people commercialize their product ideas, I jumped at the chance. During a presentation at Quirky's industrial-chic Manhattan headquarters, 25-year-old founder Ben Kaufman wowed us with tales of how he took his first trip to China to sell the headphones he invented - while still in high school. I found myself fantasizing that my own idea - conjured up the night before - could yield a globe-trotting business trip. I was soon to learn, however, that the odds of seeing my product on a store shelf were less than 1 percent, according to the United Inventors Association. And those odds are getting worse every day, thanks to a flood of would-be inventors and "wantrepreneurs" egged on by reality TV shows and economic malaise, says Mark Reyland, the association's director.
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