Aug. 25, 2026
A child had popcorn stuck between two teeth. Dad reached for a thin tool common in dentists’ offices, and plucked out the popcorn. Parental intervention successful.
Then parent looked at the tool in his hand – and this is the part that binds Clarence Parker to that small tribe known by the name Inventors: What if people could use a pen shaped like this dentist’s tool?
Four or more years later, the husband-wife team of Clarence and Phyllena Parker were at the Forum to promote the business he says he owns outright that he says has had $1 million in sales. The company is building ties to medical institutions helping people with disabled hands write comfortably again. A national retailer has Parker’s invention in stock. And yet, the self-described loner admits he’s tired from handling all the details – coaxing his invention through the patent labyrinth, into limited production and now toward identifying and then capturing a sustainable market.
Participants at the Forum wrapped the couple in love, but asked one of the hard questions: Why not trade small shares in your company for investors’ marketing and financial help?
Other questions tumbled out:
- How do you get started turning an idea into something tangible?
- What would you tell kids about how to keep their creativity alive?
- Where is this thing made?
- Is this a one-off or a family of products, including a curved stylus for tablets?
- How would you teach kids about getting an idea of theirs patented?
What accounts for Clarence Parker being on the cusp of success? He’s an engineer. He has a day job. He’s persistent. He used a gofundme account to raise the capital required to get a first production run; but he says he’s self-financed the legal, engineering and patent costs and the trip to China to find a manufacturer. Not once did anyone ask what kind of education he had pursued; instead, he offered: “I am driven.”
He’s a survivor. One failed marketing effort under a different pen name remains on the Internet. He says he’s gone through about half a dozen marketing companies. And his gargantuan dream also survives: Since billions of humans write, even if his pen attracts a tiny fraction of the writing instrument market, his pen should produce $100 million in sales annually. Fending off copycats explains why he’s armed himself with a patent on his idea.
There are many conversations at the Forum that young people could, or do, learn from about how they could pursue their own dreams. The video of Forum participants’ conversation with the Parkers is below.
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