Written by: Stephen Key

The most successful inventors I know are passionate about their ideas. Makes sense, doesn’t it? Becoming an entrepreneur isn’t for the faint of heart. I can tell you this: Everyone who makes it experienced rejection countless times before. It’s inevitable. To play this game, you have to be willing to keep at it.

You have to let rejection roll off your shoulders. You can’t lose sight of what’s at stake. Being personally invested can really help. Because when the going gets tough, what’s going to propel you not to give up? Purpose. When you’re passionate about your mission, nothing can stop you.

That’s absolutely true of Lesli Jenkins Wang, one of my students. In 2007, Wang began searching for a product that would help her mother preserve her mobility. When she couldn’t find what she was looking for, she was surprised. “Every website I checked offered the same few products, which were industrial-looking and cumbersome. I thought, ‘That isn’t good enough for my Mom.’” Wang explained. “She couldn’t be the only one experiencing this problem. So I needed to figure it out. That’s really where it started.”

Wang’s mother had become increasingly uneasy about venturing outside of her home, because it was difficult for her to use restrooms without commode frames. The hundreds of products developed to assist with mobility and the activities of daily living had missed an obvious gap. Wang said. “How do you negotiate using a public restroom if you cannot lift yourself on and off the toilet, even with a four-wheel rolling walker or wheelchair?”

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