By Julie Sloane / CNN

 

Most folks in the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel know Scott Jones as "the guy who invented voicemail." In the early '90s Jones made about $50 million on his company, which created the predominate form of voicemail, and he "retired" at age 31. Over the past two decades this driven inventor has been generating ideas for new products and companies - some were successful, others hit the scrap heap - at a pace that would make Thomas Edison's head spin.

 

 

Jones likes to bike as he scans data from eight computer screens.

There's no desk in Jones's office. Instead, he designed a recumbent bike that seats him in front of eight flat-panel monitors, all connected to a CPU. The bike allows him to exercise while he works and think more creatively by having many documents and websites visible simultaneously. Jones has been known to bike for three hours at a time, sweat streaming, while he works. "I've done board meetings there with a phone, and people wonder why I'm panting," he notes.

 

 

 

 
Jones carmel, ind., home, with its own it staff is his idea lab

Jones spent seven years and $20 million renovating his house in Carmel, Ind. The home features a 33-foot-high great room, an indoor tree house, a circular mahogany slide connecting two floors, a 25-foot-long saltwater aquarium, two waterfalls in the master bathroom, a separate indoor basketball court, and a full-scale cast of a T. rex skull.

 

 

Jones gets inspiration from watching flicks in his 20-seat home theater

Many entrepreneurs describe their great ideas as a lightning bolt of inspiration, but to hear Jones tell it, he's prone to frequent thunderstorms. "All of a sudden I can't sleep, and I have all these ideas that are unrelated to each other," he describes. "I just spew them on the page, and it feels like I'm channeling from somewhere else."

 

 

Jones, with his victrola, plays ideas over and over until he finds a unique product.

Jones's life is choreographed to squeeze every possible cerebral moment from the day. He sleeps six hours and 45 minutes a night and not a minute more. (After studying his sleep patterns, he determined that to be the magic number for maximum productivity.) His day is scheduled to the minute by his chief of staff, Maggie Kauer, 56. "Precision" and "procedure" are two words she uses often.

 

 

Inspirational items.

Jones's stuff gives him ideas. Clockwise from top left: an acupuncture model, TV wiring, owl vomit, vacuum tubes, a solar system, and a microscope. For reasons he can't determine, creative moments often happen on airplanes. "A lot of the ideas in my file cabinet were written on the backs of barf bags," he says.

 

 

Jones the inventor likes to stuff his office with oscilloscopes, signal generators, solar ovens, and any other gadget that helps him tinker.

On the third floor of Jones's home, a thumbprint scanner unlocks the door to his inner sanctum. A spiral staircase leads to his attic office suite, where he typically works until two or three in the morning. In it, he has a room with whiteboards floor to ceiling - and even on the ceiling - where he works out the details of his brainstorms. The suite also includes a room piled high with such gear as a signal generator, an oscilloscope, and a solar oven.

 

summer intern sarah mcclamroch takes a slide in jones's house.

Summer intern Sarah McClamroch takes a slide in Jones's house. To get his creative juices flowing, Jones often engages in bizarre behavior: eating without utensils, watching TV a foot away from the screen. "Anything I normally do, I'll do it differently just to see what happens," he says.

Read more on Scott Jones:

How a great inventor works: Full story

 

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