[sdiy] OT: Reed Switches and Magnets - where it all leads....

[Scott Stites]

I've got an uncle who has actually constructed a time machine - you may have
heard his interview with Art Bell.  Anyway, he takes the occasional trips to the
future and brings back financial publications that we use to base our investments
on.  You can imagine my surprise when I opened up Business Week, December 2024,
and found this article.

Cheers,
Scott

=========

Business Week Tycoon of the Year, 2024

Refrigerator Magnet Magnate Ray Wilson

Ray Wilson's humble beginnings in the refrigerator magnet business sprung from an
unlikely source:  his past interest in building obsolete sound equipment.

"I'd pretty much immersed myself fairly deeply into building synthesizers, the
type based on old designs from long-gone manufacturers", recounts Wilson.  "One
day, in the midst of this misery, I hit upon the idea of building a keyboard that
used magnets and reed switches, instead of membranes or J-wires.  Man, was I off
the deep end!  Anyway, there was a group of people just as deranged as I was that
corresponded on this list on what was then called 'the internet'.  Come to find
out, I was going to have to do a lot of research into different magnets and reed
switches.  I finally came up with the right combination, but not before I'd
accumulated a garage full of magnets of nearly every size imaginable."

"Well, one day, as a lark, I made this little panel printed with a slogan, (I)
can't really remember what it was, but it was funny yet pointed, and glued it on
the magnet.  A neighbor saw it lying on my kitchen table, and immediately offered
me $5 for it - (he) said he wanted to put it on his refrigerator.  I made a dozen
more, went to a flea market, and sold every one of them. In a flash, it struck me
- no one before had made the leap from gritty bumper sticker slogans to gritty
refrigerator magnet slogans.  I took out a small business loan, started a magnet
mill, and the rest is, well, history.  Or the future, depending on which year
you're in while reading this quote." 

"I rolled my magnet business into several investments, diversified into other
fields, and it was life in the fast lane.  After I forced Gates out of business,
I'd pretty much done it all, so I retired.  My plans for the future are to kick
back, take it easy, and maybe learn a bit more about those new-fangled molecular
mount components.  I figure there's got to be either a musical or magnet based
application."

Not everyone is as thrilled with Ray's success as Ray is.  Business Week looked
up some of Ray's old acquaintences.

"I originally was happy for Ray", says Harry Bissell from his rocking chair at
the Old Curmudgeon's Home in Snow Bird, Arizona, "But when he bought the
semiconductor fabrication plant and started pumping out BBD's by the truckload,
that pretty much changed."

John Mahoney, now vice president of the Volkswagon Jetpack Division, takes a
similar dim view of Wilson.

"I gave Wilson one of the first tips on where to get magnets.  Without that
information, Wilson would probably be painting center lines in the Eisenhour
tunnel.  What did I get out of it?  Not one red cent.  You'd think he could have
at least handed me control of the BBD operation."

Loved or despised, Wilson holds the honor of Tycoon of the Year, 2024.

________________________________________________
PeoplePC:  It's for people. And it's just smart. 
http://www.peoplepc.com