Use birds that don't fly in the ointment.

• Position: People - Use of emu oil

Richard Guy wasn't quite buying what Andy Martin and Johnny Johnson were selling in March 2001. "That sounds like snake oil," he remembers saying. Actually, it was emu oil. Martin and Johnson, owners of Johnson Emu Inc. in Eva, Ala., had hoped to sell Guy the byproduct their plant produced while processing the bird's meat.

Guy and his sister Betsy Homer had started Nutrition & Fitness Inc., which does business as NFI Dietary Supplements, in the garage of their parents' Fayetteville home in 1988 with a credit card and an $8,000 loan from their parents. He had gotten the idea to sell fat burners and other weight-loss supplements by watching people sweat to sculpt their bodies at the Gold's Gym that he started -- with the help of 10 investors -- after dropping out of East Carolina University in 1983.

NFI was profitable and on the way to grossing $15 million in 2001, but Guy, its chairman, was exploring ways to expand. Martin and Johnson claimed that em u oil, extracted from the feet of the Australian bird, contained a natural anti-inflammatory and penetrated the skin quickly to soothe aching muscles. It sounded like an Aussie fairy tale, but Guy visited Johnson Emu anyway.

Back in Fayetteville, he gave emu oil to family and friends. Martin and Johnson sent him research backing their claims. Guy became a believer. The companies agreed that Johnson Emu would supply its oil only to NFI and that NFI would use no other emu oil in its product -- a bright blue...