After working in Vancouver, as a Wheel Alignment technician, and making $2,000. per month, for 3 years.
Because my father and most of my family resided in Winnipeg, when an opportunity arose for me to get into my own business there, I took it. I was extremely sad as I drove through the Rockies leaving British Columbia. After residing in Vancouver, our family returned to chilly Winnipeg in January. It was my intention to build a modern service center specializing in wheel alignment, wheel balancing and brake jobs with an attached car-wash. I put an offer on a piece of land and had blueprints drawn up.
My First Invention
In the meantime, on January 15, 1971, I started building a parts washer in my basement because I wanted this automotive center to be a well-organized business. As I began working on this solvent cycling part cleaner, ideas came into my mind. I felt a passion in me that I could not describe, Two months later, I realized that I had made a parts washer prototype with the ability to prolong solvent life. The solvent used in earlier methods of parts washing lasted two weeks; my prototype enabled solvent to last up to one year. I installed the prototype at my brother's business, an operation that sold and serviced cash registers.
After several months of use, the solvent in my prototype machine was still crystal clear. I obtained a patent attorney; a search revealed that I would be able to obtain patents on my invention. Immediately, I applied for patents in Canada, the US and the UK and abandoned the idea of the service center. Manufacture of the parts washer began. It was April of 1971.
Most inventors end up frustrated, bitter, and broke. If the inventor is fortunate, follows the process correctly, and is extremely cautious, it is possible for him to make a sizable amount of money through royalties paid by a large corporation. If the inventor is able to market his own products successfully, he has patent protection for seventeen years as well as the satisfaction of seeing his own invention and product being used and accepted by all.
Society is the inventor's enemy. Although the public benefits from these inventions, acceptance of new products comes slowly. It is the inventors who make improvements to existing inventions, those products that have already been accepted by society, who are able to take advantage of the efforts of many marketing "experts."
After only one year in operation, I ran out of money. Just in the nick of time, Magna International of Toronto along with a businessman from Edmonton signed an agreement to be my licensee and to manufacture my machine. They paid a five percent royalty on their selling price of my parts washer.
Maga paid my $10,000. and 5% royalties, so I moved from a small housing complex to the most beautiful home in Southdale. Dead center of a cul de sac close to the Royal Mint, when the milkman came to deliver milk, he just about had a heart attack
During the next three years, I invested my money wisely and invented three other machines. Eventually, I took back my manufacturing rights, formed a company called "Solv-X Inventions Ltd." and opened beautiful facilities across the street from the Royal Mint, an edifice which inspired me on a daily basis.
With my strong organizational skills and varied abilities, I tried to project a well-structured and professional image. As years went by I attended international trade shows in places such as Peru, Panama, Japan, England and Germany. I participated in many trade shows in Canada and across the United States.
Quality was more important to me than price. My company soon gained the reputation of being number one in its class and it was often called "the Cadillac of the trade". Some of my customers included Rockwell International, General Motors in Detroit, Chrysler Canada in Windsor, Toyota, Volkswagen, Trans-Canada Pipelines, and Ford of Canada, CN Railway, and the Canadian Armed Forces.