The Yacht Club nobody asked for

by Antony Barran
Last Friday, I was sitting at the Yacht Club getting things ready to open when I got an email forwarded to me by my wife. For those who don’t know, we’re life and business partners. (More on that another day.)

Now, I get a lot of emails from her. She’s the operations/detail person in our partnership, so a mountain of “stuff” crosses her desk. She does a great job shielding me from most of it — because the more data I get, the more my ADHD takes me sideways.

But this one surprised me — not because of what it was, but because of what it represented.

Ten years ago, we left our life in Los Angeles and moved to a town of 1,100 people, knowing absolutely no one. Given the general PNW (Pacific Northwest) skepticism of folks from California (especially L.A. or San Francisco), we decided to keep a low profile. Even as we acquired businesses, we avoided press releases, interviews, or any publicity. We didn’t want to be seen as “flashy.” As a result, we weren’t part of the political or social power structure. We were just… normal people.

Then, last year, we opened a new business that had most people scratching their heads: a yacht club. – Full report