I have enjoyed working with you and thank you for your kind words. I have learned a number of valuable lessons working with you over these many years. In fact, I have often used the story of when I tried to talk you out of patenting the nut flange that eventually resulted in you making hundreds of thousands of dollars, to teach the three most important lessons that l learned working with you. First, always look for a simpler solution to the problem that you are trying to solve. The tools that you developed prior to your development of the nut flange were not as simple a solution as merely changing the flange, but it took the rejection of the tool product in the marketplace to drive you to think of the simpler solution. Second, keep on inventing even if your first, second, or third inventions, are not successful. You spent years and thousands of dollars on your first round of tool inventions, but it was your later invention that made you money. Finally, always follow your gut, even if others advise you against it. I was a young patent attorney a few years out of law school when I tried to talk you out of patenting your nut flange invention. My thought was that the invention was so simple that it would be difficult, and costly, to get through the patent office, that you wouldn’t be able to license it even if a patent did issue, and if you did license it, it would kill the market for the tools that you had already spent thousands of dollars to patent. You had other thoughts and your perseverance paid off. I look forward to continuing to work with you and, even though I am now a seasoned patent attorney with over 10 years experience, I know that I will continue to learn from our interactions.

All the best, Mike. http://www.laconialaw.com