From pristine national parks and ski resorts to mountain biking trails and destinations like Moab and Park City, we have a lot to proud of here in the state of Utah. And now, thanks to Salt Lake City-based Latitude Restaurant Group, you can finally add ‘a great steak’ to that list. Last December, Ruth’s Chris Steak House announced that it had reached an agreement with Latitude to open Utah’s first nationally recognized fine-dining steak house.

I don’t want to make anyone’s mouth water too much, but if you’ve never been to a Ruth’s Chris Steak House, you’re really missing out on some terrific food, and I’m not just referring to the steaks either. New Orleans-inspired appetizers, the finest U.S. Prime cuts of meat, fresh seafood and classic desserts, all complemented by service to die for are what make Ruth’s Chris one of my favorite–and very rare (no pun intended)–fine dining experiences.

Later tonight, my wife, Amy, and I will head up to Salt Lake City to experience fine dining at its prime. If anyone needs me, just follow the sizzle to 134 W. Pierpont Ave., Salt Lake City, UT, and look for the guy who is enamored by both his meal and amazingly beautiful wife!

Last week, while gearing up for my trip to the Wind River Range, I wrote about the burden that accompanies preparing for time spent away from the office. Now that I’m back, I remember another cost associated with being gone for extended periods of time: namely, that for every four days you spend away from the office, you spend at least one full day digging out! I had so many email and voice messages waiting for me upon my return that I wondered why in the heck I’d even left in the first place.

And speaking of digging out, due to an approaching winter storm, our six-day trip got cut short by two full days. At 10,000 feet above sea level–which I know, is nothing compared to Everest, K2, or Kilimanjaro–there’s little room for forgiveness, especially when it comes to weather. As someone much smarter than me once said, there’s no such thing as good weather or bad weather; there’s just weather!

When you know a month or so in advance that you’ll be taking a week’s vacation, does the knowledge of your impending break from work cause you to work more, or do you plot along at your normal pace regardless of the time you know you’ll be spending away from the business? My guess is that if you asked 100 entrepreneurs that very same question, at least 90 of them would say that an impending vacation or weeklong business trip would indeed cause them to work extra hours, if not holidays and weekends too.

My point? Well, I’m heading to one of the dark spots on the map tomorrow, and if the weather cooperates, I’ll be gone for the better part of the next week; and while I’ll only be gone for five or six days, I’ve easily logged an additional three weeks worth of work in anticipation of the trip.

Like so many of my colleagues at Doba, I’ve been working a lot of extra hours since the beginning of August. Nights, weekends, and even the Labor Day holiday… it hasn’t really mattered… planning my work so I could work my plan has become one vicious circle. As is usually the case when I determine weeks in advance that a serious break from work is called for, I’ll get to a point where I can’t sleep. In pre-break mode, I’ll wake up at 3:00 in the morning because my mind is racing with a million ideas and things that need to get done. By 4:00 AM I’m at the office, and because I know I’ll be gone in just a few weeks, I’ll stay late—or go home for dinner with the family, and then head back to the office for just a few more hours of work (sound familiar to any of the entrepreneurs out there?).

So here I am, just hours removed from removing myself from my office, co-workers, family, cell phone, and business advisors, and I find myself asking the following questions:

• Does my trip—a backpacking expedition with three co-workers and two non-work-related friends into Wyoming’s Wind River Range–really solve anything, or does the trip itself cause the very thing that I’m seeking solace from?
• Does the backcountry trip actually cause the balance to tip too much towards the work side of the equation, and then tip back to the center once I return, or does it provide the break I so desperately need, which in turn allows me to gain valuable perspective and insight?
• And finally, if I didn’t take any time away from work, would I just get into a zone of work/life balance and go forever, or would the pressure ratchet up to the point where I’d become so burned out that I wouldn’t be of use to anyone?

These are the questions I’ll attempt to answer over the next week (I find that I need at least three-plus days in order to detach myself from the mind-consuming business-related thoughts that keep me awake at all hours of the night). Here’s to taking time to clear your mind and to using your alloted time away from work to make sense of things.

Long before television’s “The Apprentice” turned private sector enterprise into popular entertainment, Utah Business Week was making corporate culture a real-world experience for high school students. In recent years, more than a thousand Utah high schoolers have participated in Business Week, and this year—just a few weeks ago in fact—I was fortunate enough to be able to speak a group of them up at Utah State University (in Logan, UT).

In all, about 150 students were in town to learn about the principles of business, how to work as a part of a team, and participate in mock company meetings and business simulations. The weeklong event’s organizers asked me to present an hour session on what it means to be an entrepreneur, and to share my own story for how I became a successful business owner.

As one might expect, the title of my presentation was “Adventures in Entrepreneurship” (why reinvent the wheel, right), and after covering my upbringing on a farm and how that experience taught me the value of hard work, I dove right into the meat of the presentation, which covered:

1. Risk versus Reward
2. The Law of the Harvest
3. Being a Firefighter or a Firestarter
4. The Value of Specialization

The most valuable part of the presentation though, I thought, was the part on Risk versus Reward. Rather than present a bunch of boring PowerPoint slides or talk the subject to death, I made it experiential (“hands-on” if you will). In preparation, I brought three decks of playing cards with me to the talk. One deck of cards I left intact; one had all the diamonds and hearts removed; and the third contained only spades.

After telling the students what I had done to each deck, I asked for three volunteers but stipulated that each needed to have cash-in-hand in order to participate. Not a lot of hands shot up at first, but eventually three students came forward to help out.

Here’s what happened next:

• Once the first student came to the front of the auditorium, I posed the following question: “Using the first deck–the one that I left intact–how much of your own money would you be wiling to risk on being able to pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades?” She bet $8.00, and with only an 8 percent chance of pulling it off, she lost, and I kept her $8.00. (Hey, it’s risk versus rewards, right? You risk, you lose, and someone else gets your money. That’s how it works!)
• The next student was given the same option but with the second deck (the one with all the diamonds and hearts removed). The odds this time around were about 16 percent in his favor, and with that in mind, he risked $10.00 on being able to pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades from deck number two. Unfortunately, he didn’t win either, so I was up $18.00 (great, enough for gas money for the drive back to Orem).
• The final volunteer had the best odds of all. Using the third deck–the one that contained only spades–there was a 32 percent chance that the student would pull either the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades; but like the other two, he lost, and I counted his $10.00 towards my winnings.

“Entrepreneurship is a lot like gambling,” I told the packed auditorium; “You risk, and you might you be rewarded; but as we saw, not each and every time!” “The first person–the one who wagered $8.00 of her own money,” I said, “played ’straight up Las Vegas style’ gambling, which is always the most risky type of gamble there is. That’s why the Las Vegas casinos make so much money. The odds are always in their favor!”

“The second deck,” I told them, “well, that’s like entrepreneurship… you put more odds in your favor because you control more of what happens, but not entirely.”

“The final deck–the one with the best odds,” I said, “that’s like entrepreneurship with smart advisors and helpers.” “Even though the odds are more in your favor than with decks one and two, it’s still risky, as evidenced by the fact that I just added the cost of a value meal and then-some to my gas money!”

By this point, I think everyone understood the notion of Risk versus Reward. And even though I could have ended the session right then and there, I chose to go a little further. What type of entrepreneur would I be if I didn’t complete the Risk versus Reward scenario by introducing the much-heralded Venture Capitalist into the mix.

Here’s what happened next:

I pulled $500 in ten dollar bills from my pocket and said that I need three more volunteers. This time, every single hand in room shot up, and when my three volunteers came to the front of the auditorium, I asked each for their best business idea. I told them that if I liked their idea, I’d invest in it, and that with the money I invested, they could either walk away or risk some or all of it with deck number three (the one containing only the spades).

• The first volunteer’s goal was to open a nice Bed and Breakfast. I asked if this ‘nice’ B&B would have a similarly nice day spa, and since she said it would, I chose to invest $50.00 in her business. With 32 percent odds in her favor, she decided to risk $40.00 of my money on being able to pull the Jack, Queen, King, or Ace of Spades. Like the others before her, she lost, but was able to walk away with $10.00.
• The next volunteer said, “I want to open a custom electric guitar shop,” to which I replied, “Cool… do you have a celebrity sponsor or spokesperson?” ” Yep… it’s Eddie Van Halen,” he proudly proclaimed.
  
  Now let me go on a bit of a tangent for a second here. I really like Van Halen, and I really like a lot of the music from the late 80’s and early-90’s that has been referred to as ‘glam rock,’ ‘hair bands,’ and even ‘cheese rock.’ Bands like Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen are right up my alley.
  
  Naturally, given my own passion for his business, I said, “Okay, ‘I’ll fund your business with $250.00!” The crowd went nuts with students left and right yelling, “Take the money and run!!” But, like a good entrepreneur, he said, “I’m risking $200.00!” Unfortunately, he didn’t win either, but did end up going back to his seat with $50.00 of my money.
• The final volunteer said, “My idea is to open a veterinarian business, but I’ll be different from all the others because I’ll only do house calls.” “Sounds good,” I said, “so I’ll invest $100.00 in your business,” to which she replied, “I’ll risk $50.00 of it,” and wouldn’t you know it… she pulled out the Queen of Spades and walked off stage with $150.00 (much to the applause of the audience, which was going crazy over the fact that someone had finally won).

I’m glad that the final student walked off with more than just a bit of my money. I really wanted someone to do that. Obviously, I could not have given everyone in the room $150.00 to teach that lesson, but the fact that one person did succeed… well, I’m guessing they’ll be talking for a while about that crazy entrepreneur at Utah Business Week that gave a student $150.00 as a part of a lesson in entrepreneurship.