In our case and our experience on the first part—ingenuity—I was fortunate in my grandfather. When he passed away last November, the Globe and Mail ran a full-page obituary on him. He was listed as one of the great inventors of Canada. One of his inventions was the modern-day combine. If we had cereal, pancakes, or toast this morning, we can give thanks to my gramps.
From there he went on to work in road construction, and that's where he became exposed to the disposal of waste motor oil. He felt there was a better way. With no backing of any research facility or any government, he quite literally started tinkering in his backyard. He created it and almost had it figured out, and we've since finished it off. Fortunately, he did live to see the thing work. That was a proud moment for me personally.
But I've had experience since then. I recently had the privilege of touring a place called Brainport in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. It's a fascinating micro example of university, business, and entrepreneurial ingenuity coming together and working in such an open format that the inventor—the developer—is not concerned that some guy is going to steal his idea and run a no patent to him tomorrow. They work so collaboratively, and with their access to capital, just the physical building, the environment where they work is very stimulating.
