Cashing In on the Fear Factor
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“People are doing this to be badasses. We don’t want to take that away from them.”
Photograph: Paul Goguen/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Growing up in Australia, Beau Retallick was always dreaming up ways to get rich. What makes him different from most other tinkerers is that some of his inventions have actually made money.
First there was the machine for shaping polyethylene pellets into huge water storage tanks. That contraption, which he designed in 1991 at the age of 17, boosted the value of his family’s plastics business, says his father, Gary, who later sold the company for $18 million. “While other kids were thinking about their sports, he’d be looking at machines,” says the older Retallick.