Introduction
I present here a snapshot of my life in invention. With more than one hundred concepts and prototypes across more than twenty years, four are patented or pending, but most given form as fun ideas not worthy of mass production, or perhaps, not pursued at the right time. I look back and see clearly that my highest creative output was during those years at Arizona State University, College of Architecture & Environmental Design where I completed my five year degree in Industrial Design.
That was an incredible time for me, every day spent thinking in three dimensions, sketching, and building prototypes. Over weekends I hold-up in my parents’ garage, little thought given to the heat of the Phoenix days or chill of the desert nights, for I was designing, building, playing.
From 1999 through 2008 I redirected my creativity toward the incredible challenge of running a software development company, but didn’t realize until after I sold Terra Soft how much I had lost my free-flowing creativity. I felt dry inside, and vowed to regain what once came so naturally to me.
In early December 2008 I loaded a file cabinet drawer and large cardboard box into my car, my life of invention sketches, drawings, and prototypes in transport. An hour later I arrived at my patent attorney’s office. To his surprise, I covered the entire conference table with a scattering of ideas. Laughing, he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “I have never had a client bring an entire file drawer of inventions to me. Sit down. You want a beer?”