Is it "who you know" or "who knows you?"

(continued from << previous page >>)

While attending an event in Chicago called “Chevy Vettefest,” a fellow I didn’t know introduced himself as Chris Balodimas and asked if he could buy me a cup of coffee. He told me he just recently had his 1970 Corvette restored, and wanted to put something on the finish to protect it. Through a friend of a friend, he had obtained a jar of my finish cream. Chris said, “I only applied one coat, but the depth of the shine was fantastic.” Due to his success, Chris began recommending it to his friends.

As luck would have it, Larry Shinoda got word of the product’s performance. Mr. Shinoda was a leading designer of the 1963 Split-Window StingRay Corvette and the Ford Boss 302 Mustang. Through a mutual friend of Chris, Mr. Shinoda obtained a jar of my finish cream. Months later I received a call from Mr. Bob Fritz, VP of Nippon Paint’s Color Design Studio of America. Nippon Paint is one of the world’s leading authorities in the automotive paint industry. Mr. Fritz disclosed that Larry Shinoda had forwarded my finish cream to him, and that his lab had been testing it. (Years later, Mr. Fritz would write “I am pleased to report, that after 4 years of application and testing of your IMAGE 10 product line, the performance is, without question, unparalleled for DOI [distinction of image], surface tension, duration of protection, depth of shine and acid rain protection.”) Mr. Fritz encouraged me to have further tests conducted at Allied Laboratories in Villa Park, Illinois.        << read more >>