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About two years ago I was struggling to breathe life into my pet project called 'Skyaak'. Skyaak is a unique 'Ring-Wing' flying device that I originally saw over thirty years ago when a friend showed me a simple but very strange paper airplane. It consisted of two paper loops fastened on the front and back of a drinking straw, with a bit of gum at the front. It looked like nothing I had ever seen before. When he tossed it to me like a little dart, it flew really well. Really well!

It was love at first flight, and I never forget the elegant design.

Fast forward thirty years. I had been playing around with the idea of creating a much more sophisticated version of the design that could be commercially manufactured. I wanted to build a decent quality 'working prototype' that would prove to my satisfaction that this was an idea worth pursuing. I used household items such as margarine containers for the ring-wings and slowly evolved the project until I could plainly see that it was indeed something worth developing.

Being a free-lance artist, my funds were fairly limited. At a certain moment, I began to feel discouraged that I might never have enough available capital to make a substantial investment in notching the project up to the next level. I had heard and read about the power of the sub-conscious to accomplish amazing feats, if a person had the discipline to ask it to do so.

I began to repeat a sort of mantra just before falling asleep each night in hopes that this might work. The 'mantra' was a request that research and development for my Skyaak project be energized like never before.

Three nights went by and nothing happened. I was growing more discouraged but decided to persevere. At about 3:00 AM on the fourth night, I woke up and stumbled to my keyboard to peck out a sort of 'pick-me-up'. After about an hour, it was finished. I re-read my first and only draft of what turned out to be a 12-stanza poem, thought it was pretty good, saved it, turned my computer off and went back to sleep.

The next day, a good friend who is a professional musician dropped over and I decided to show him the little ditty I had written. Well! He loved it and declared on the spot that he wanted to put it to music. He said that there was already a melody running through his head!

As if that wasn't amazing enough, over the next three weeks seven individuals came forward to invest capital in my Skyaak project after they read the poem. We all agreed that they would be anonymous, known only as 'Angel Investors'.

This early 'seed capital', as well as the positive energy generated by their collective good faith, fueled the rapid advancement of the Skyaak project. I revisited the series of designs that I had been working on to date and redoubled my efforts to work out the intricacies of creating a mechanical drawing that resolved the challenges of a flat-manufactured ring-wing. This was a critical departure in the design, as I had found that the start-up cost of creating a full 3-dimensional model was daunting.

I was able to take my designs to a plastics manufacturing company and have the wing cut out with a laser beam. The laser's path is guided by my scale drawing, converted by a technician to a 'vector file', that the computer-generated laser can understand. I shopped all across North America (by phone and online) to find all of the various special plastic components that comprise the advanced Model 3. I custom designed all of the illustrated assembly instructions, the dual-purpose cardboard display/shipping box and the labeling during a period of intense creativity. This burst of creative energy was fueled not only by my dogged faith in the project's merits, but also the huge boost in confidence that I got from the seven Angel Investors.

After I heard him interviewed on CBC Radio, I sent best-selling Minneapolis-based author of 'Adventures from the Technology Underground' William Gurstelle a sample unit of the Skyaak Model 3. He was so excited and impressed with it that he wrote the following on his blog (http://www.nfftu.blogspot.com):

"Skyaak- Canada's Answer to the Frisbee"

" Because I am a writer, I get to appear on national TV and radio every once in a while. Last month I did an interview with Radio Canada about Adventures from the Technology Underground. Fairly often, people contact me with questions and comments afterwards.

A Canadian inventor named Michael Robert Gaudet came up with something called the Skyaak, which is something you toss around to your buddies for fun. He sent me a couple after hearing me on the radio and I have to say, they are incredibly cool. It's sort of like a pole -shaped frisbee. There are two conical surfaces on either side of a plastic pole. The conical surfaces act as wings and provide interesting aerodynamic properties to the thing as a whole.

I took one to a gym last night and threw it around between basketball games. It was a hit!

I've not met Mr. Gaudet and have no financial interest in his product, but I do think it's very neat. I think it has more cachet than your regular old frisbee. Google skyaak if you're interested."

At the time of this writing, Skyaak Model 3 has been picked up by the Long Island, NY-based company New Da Vincis, who have freshly minted an online inventor's boutique called http://www.NewDaVincis.com as a Feature Product! Their mandate is 'A web site that promotes great creative and innovative products made by inventors, entrepreneurs and talented and successful product creators. Products that even Leonardo da Vinci would have been proud of!'

'How could a simple poem create so much excitement?' you ask yourself.

Well, if you are intrigued by this real-life success story, and want to read the poem, visit http://www.theahaexperience.com There, you will find a free download poster of the poem as well as a free sample MP3 file of the musical version. And yes, my musician friend and I did create a professional CD Single called 'I Believe' as a result of our creative collaboration.

It is my hope that this story will inspire everyone who reads it to endure in good faith with your pet idea... to follow your muse and never give up on your dream! The deep feeling of satisfaction you get out of tangible results thanks to your hard work, focus and perseverance is second to none.