Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

I'm contantly amazed by my father. Every few months I find out something else about him that's larger than life.

The latest is the story of how he developed and invented an enzyme in the 80s. This enzyme is mixed with hog and chicken feed to assist with digestion and consequently it saves agri-business millions of dollars a year. Another use for Hemicell makes the oil extraction process cleaner for the environment. (The oil thing is very complicated to explain).

When my father originally had the idea for the enzyme in the mid 1980s, his company's board of directors told him that it would be a waste of time and they weren't going to fund it. They told him to focus on other things and give the idea up. But my dad didn't listen to them. He had no staff to help him in the development of the enzyme so sometimes he used student microbiologists and once he even had my brother and I go into the lab to hold test tubes steady during his experiments.

My dad went into work at nights and on weekends for two full years to develop a product that he wasn't being paid to create. Then, some time in about 1988, after presenting the enzyme at a trade show, his company got a big order for it from a major Chicken producer. Then his company's board of director's decided the enzyme might be something they'd pay to manufacture.

My dad no longer works for this company but he told me that in 2005 the enzyme is their biggest-selling product. In fact, they sell about one million dollars worth of the enzyme per MONTH to China alone.

I could never imagine being so inspired with my job as to work at night and on weekends for two years when my boss had specifically told me not to do so.

That's completely mind-boggling.