Consequently, many inventions never find their way to the people for whom they were intended. Their bright promise fades as the inventors become frustrated, then discouraged, then give up and move on. Fortunately for the millions of people who travel by air or make their living in the aerospace industry, this wasn't the case with the airplane. After spending seven years in difficult and dangerous work to perfect their invention, the Wright brothers were willing to spend three more to get it to market. But they found that the marketing, in many ways, was more difficult and required more fortitude than the actual inventing.
Promotion is just the opposite.
It is a convoluted process, dependent on guesswork. The Wrights found this out almost as soon as they perfected a practical airplane. When the Army replied that it was not interested, not only was the response disappointing, it also seemed to make no sense. The Wrights shrugged off the response and headed for Europe, where they figured a government somewhere would want a flying machine. Once again, they were wrong.