Imagine you're 22 years old, about to graduate college. You're interviewing for jobs, but not excited about the industry that your degree points you to. Sitting in class one day with your laptop open, an email from your brother appears in your inbox. He sent you a link to a website where you can see businesses that are for sale. You poke around the site and see that there's a ski resort for sale — a ski resort in your home state. You drop all notions of getting a job and decide you're going to buy this aging ski resort instead. That really happened, and Rick Schmitz was that senior. He did acquire the ski resort, turned it around, and went on to acquire others. It is now 17 years later, and he is the owner of multiple ski resorts. What an awesome story of business acquisition. Here he is to tell that story: Rick Schmitz.