Protect your assets: People & Companies

This column is about the assets side of business. By assets, I mean money but also time, expertise and capability. The thing is, if you have assets, there are people who would steal those assets. I recently was contacted by strangers who wanted to use my expertise and capability to get money from third parties. It reminded me of events that I lived through many years ago. Here is that story.

About 1980, I learned the abbreviation OPM, which was used by stockbrokers and other money people to mean “other people’s money.” I was 28 years old and just starting my shop, and I was hired to make equipment for three men who did business together. They were the age of my parents. It was the time of the OPEC oil embargo, and alternative fuel was the rage. The men were a stockbroker, lawyer and real estate investor. They were from old-money families. I, on the other hand, am from a humbler working-class background.

The men wanted a device powered by solar energy that made alcohol fuel. The concept was timely from the point of view of an investor. Solar energy collectors were in their infancy, and there was no commercial solar panel that made electricity. I dreamed of being the next Thomas Edison and was dazzled by the men. Thinking that this was my big chance, I went to work. I made a little gadget — about the size of a briefcase — that could produce a small amount of low-proof alcohol. The broker and I went to Boston to give a presentation to wealthy people at the lawyer’s office, which overlooked Copley Square, a high-rent neighborhood.

A joint-stock company, which had different names at multiple points, was formed and paid me to develop a more commercial alcohol production system. I built such a thing at my shop and got a salary. Stock also was promised but never materialized. I created a system with a parabolic mirror that concentrated sunlight and powered an alcohol still. A patent was applied for, granted and assigned to the broker.

The company rented industrial space with an office and hired a business manager and secretary. I brought the equipment that I had made to that facility and then worked there. Looking back, I was sucked in inch by inch.