Hero versus hermit...

An inventor's personality has a great bearing upon whether they succeed or fail.
Perhaps the first thing we ought to look at is our definition of "success".

A number of factors determine whether an inventor is successful.
Among these we might list the following:

Is there a real (or perceived) need for the invention?
Invention is about finding a solution to a problem in order to fulfill a need. The question is, does the inventor accurately understand the needs of others? If the inventor has a different perception of the problem, they will have a different idea of what's required and the solution they come up with will be of no real use, in which case it's a failure. Rather than just inventing something because you think it's a good idea, you need to do a bit of "market reasearch" to be sure you have the right objectives in mind. Being really tuned in to the requirements of the people who will use your invention is vital. As Thomas Edison put it: "I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing....I find out what the world needs, then I go ahead and try to invent it." (click here for a list of his quotes).

Does the inventor have the resources to develop the invention?
Developing a working solution to a problem takes time and may consume material resources. Furthermore, specialists may be required to assist in certain fields of expertise. All this costs money. One of the greatest inventors of all time (he held 1,093 patents, the most ever awarded to one person) Thomas Edison once stated that for every three thousand (3,000) proposed solutions to a problem, only two (2) would actually work. So if you think about it, you could use an awful lot of resources just in development!
Furthermore a certain determination is required if one is to "stick at it" through all these "failures" on the road to success.

Do the benefits of producing the invention outweigh the costs?
Production, as opposed to development, can also be awfully expensive.
It's possible that entire factories will need to be built, or entirely new supplies of material resources may need development. It's also possible the invention will need associated inventions, products or infrastructure developed to make it useful or marketable.
For instance, Thomas Edison is largely credited with inventing the modern electric light bulb. While this is not actually correct, he was responsible for its adaptation as a cost-effective means of artificial lighting. Let's look briefly at the process:
First, he improved on existing designs and developed the incandescent bulb to a point where it would be commercially viable. But for this to be of any commercial gain (he invented things for profit, not for the fun of it) he also had to develop associated components and infrastructure. Lightbulbs don't just glow all by themselves. Edison basically had to develop and "sell" an entire system, from a centralised power station to underground three-wire cabling, switches, sockets and bulbs. This world-first was launched in Brockton, Massachusetts, USA in 1883.
The point is, production and marketing of a newly-devised item may require a lot more than is first apparent.

Now that we have a better idea of what it takes to be a "success" as an inventor, let's look at two contrasting cases. Both men were undoubtedly geniuses, but one was an undisputed success while the other was not. How did these two characters differ? I'm just going to give a brief overview here of key points about these fellows - if you want to know more, just click on the links in the text to go to other sites.

Thomas Edison (1847 - 1931) was granted 1,093 patents, more than anyone else in history. It can be argued he was the greatest inventor in history.

Meeting the need:
According to the Edison & Ford Winter Estates Website: "In 1868 Edison made his first patented invention, the Electrical Vote Recorder. Congress was apparently not interested in purchasing this as it counted votes too quickly. Edison vowed he would never again invent anything unless there was a commercial demand for it."
Contrast this with a statement from Inventure Place National Inventors Hall of Fame (USA): "He promised that he would turn out a minor invention every ten days and a big invention every six months. He also proposed to make inventions to order. Before long he had 40 different projects going at the same time and was applying for as many as 400 patents a year."
In short, Edison made a serious point of inventing things to meet real and commercially rewarding needs.

A question of resources:
Edison was 23 when he made his first sale of an invention, the Universal Stock Ticker, to the Gold and Stock Telegraph Co. on Wall Street for $40,000. This was a fairly hefty sum back then, and it allowed him to set himself up as a manufacturer. From there, his business acumen allowed him to build larger and larger research and manufacturing facilities, until he came to have a sprawling compound with 5,000 workers. Central to his success was his dedicated team of engineers and technicians. He would jot down ideas on paper and throw them at someone to get working on, then immediately be thinking of the next possible solution to the problem at hand. He knew how to delegate, and he knew how to harness the talents of those around him.
Edison believed in hard work and determination. He is quoted as saying "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration". He often worked 20 hours a day and caught a nap at the lab.
And failure didn't deter him. He once said: "Results? Why, man, I have gotten lots of results! If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward."
He knew the value of perseverence and a positive attitude.

Richard Pearse (1877 - 1953) was a little-known inventor who lived in the South Island of New Zealand. While not on the same level as Edison by any means, he was undoubtedly also a genius, and it could be said he was at least as "switched on" as the Wright brothers, at least as far as inventive genius is concerned. Photograph © Geoffrey Rodliffe, used with full permission

A brief list of Richard Pearse's accomplishments:
His first patented invention, dating from 1902, was an ingenious new style of bicycle, bamboo-framed with a vertical-drive pedal action, rod-and-rack gearing system, back-pedal rim-brakes and integral tyre pumps.
He also developed a power-driven plough and a motorcycle each fitted with an engine of his own design and manufacture, a needle threader, recording machine, power generator, potato planter, topdresser, motorised discing machine and two sorts of musical box.
Most interesting of all would have to be his aircraft.
Pearse was working toward achieving powered flight from 1899 and had built his first two-cylinder petrol engine by 1902. Using bamboo, tubular steel, wire and canvas, he built a monoplane which featured many innovative ideas: wing flaps and rear elevator, tricycle undercarriage with steerable nosewheel, and a propeller with variable-pitch blades driven by a unique double-acting horizontally opposed petrol engine.

Click on this wee image to go to a New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs site and "fly" Richard Pearse's monoplane. Download time approx 10 seconds - Requires a VRML viewer such as WorldView

Eyewitness accounts put the date of his first powered flight at 31st March, 1903 (before the Wright brothers). However no records exist to verify these eyewitnesses' statements. A good deal of aircraft parts were salvaged from his property after his death however, and these alone testify to his ingenuity.
Remnants of his first monoplane are held at the Museum of Transport and Technology, Auckland, New Zealand and at the Timaru museum, New Zealand.

One of the greatest authorities on Richard Pearse is Geoffrey Rodliffe of Auckland, New Zealand, who can be contacted here.

It is very likely that Richard Pearse achieved sustained, powered and controlled flight before the Wright brothers. Yet he had absolutely no impact upon history whatsoever, and still lingers in near obscurity. Why?

In a nutshell, personality.

Pearse, a quiet somewhat introverted character, was something of an outcast in his remote South Island community of Waitohi.
His attempts at flight were regarded by some as "the Devil's work", and he was considered to be something of a failure as a farmer, preferring to spend his time tinkering with inventions in his shed. As time went on the derision of his neighbours caused him to he become more and more recluse. He let the hedges around his property grow to a significant height to keep prying eyes away and grew increasingly secretive.
Pearse lived and worked in near isolation.
The only resources he had were a block of land, a farm shed and the skill of his own two hands. Had his genius been rewarded with encouragement and financial gain rather than derision and ignorance, he might have come to have some effect upon the course of history. Sadly, it was not to be so.
Instead, Pearse grew increasingly embittered, disillusioned and paranoid, and eventually died of a heart attack, a patient in Sunnyside Mental Hospital.

It's plain to see that a good many things need to come together for an inventor to be truly successful. And much of it hinges on personality.