We just got back from a five-week vacation in Newport, RI. Indulge me while I talk about it a bit.
First, here is a question I get all the time: how in the world can you leave your business for that long?
Walking away and putting a business on auto-pilot for a while is probably doable for most entrepreneurs that put their mind to it. It does require preparation or it will not happen. For me, the ability to walk away for a month or more is a goal just like a revenue goal. Here are three general principles that might help those that want to do something similar:
- Put aside the ego and make yourself dispensable. If you have to be a big shot and have to be important, your business will always need you. I feel sorry for business owners whose cell phones are always ringing. I don’t see that as a strength; it is more likely a sign of an unhealthy business.
- Relentlessly focus on procedures. We have written procedures for everything that goes on in the business, and especially in the months before a long vacation, we go through them to make sure they are complete and accurate.
- Hire good people and put incentive plans in place to reward them for owning their responsibilities. I won’t go into everything we are doing in this area, but our people are well compensated for keeping things running smoothly while we are gone.
The other question I get asked is about the expense. Yes, a five-week vacation is expensive, especially in a place like Newport, and especially if you stay in a nice place (we stayed in a beautifully restored older home in a prime location). People spend money on what is important to them, and for us, vacation is a worthwhile expense that we find important. It is an investment in our family and ourselves.
Now, let me talk about Newport itself, because so few are aware of it. It is one of the jewels in America. I have been to many, many beautiful and interesting places around the world, but Newport is probably my favorite destination. That is partly because of an emotional connection and comfort factor; I have been visiting Newport for over 25 years.
Newport can initially come across as just a little tourist trap, but it is way more than that. Founded in the mid-1600s, at one point, it was the second-largest city in New England. It was also very wealthy, mostly because of its harbor. It was eventually occupied by the British and then the French during the Revolutionary War and did not recover for a long time afterward.
Because there was so little economic recovery, Newport contains more colonial-era homes than any city in the country including more well-known spots such as Williamsburg. You can go to Boston and if you search, can find just a handful of colonial homes. In Newport, there are more than 300. Just on the street we lived on, there were a half dozen homes from the 1700s.
Unless you know what you are doing, you can sort of wander by all those homes without really comprehending the history. The home that George Washington met with the French general to plan Yorktown was a few blocks away from our house. The oldest, operating tavern in the US (circa 1680) was a few blocks from us. If you go, do a historical tour or two so you know what happened in the houses you walk by on the street.
Newport is more known for the mansions that were built during the Gilded Age by the Vanderbilts and other rich families. Many of those are open to the public as well. I am not as interested in those mansions, but many enjoy visiting them.
Our house actually was located a few blocks from the harbor (the Thames Street area) and only a block from the intersection of Bellevue and Memorial. Consequently, we could walk pretty much anywhere we wanted and we did. I walked 200 miles during that month actually. It is easy to walk a ton when the weather is so beautiful. A typical day in June is sunny and in the 70s.
My favorite walks were along the harbor (I am obsessed with boats) and the famous Cliff Walk, a 3.5 hike along the ocean cliffs that created the backdrop for the mansions. Many days, I walked the entire Cliff Walk and then back to the house on Bellevue Ave (a total of six miles). The other popular family walk was to the ocean beach about a half-mile away.
One of the things I like about Newport is its proximity to so many interesting places. It is about 1.5 hours from Boston, 1 hour from Providence, and 3.5 hours from New York City. It is also just an hour from Cape Cod and a few hours from New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.
That being said, we rarely left Newport on this trip because we have already been to all those places. I did take the boys to New York City once to Madison Square Garden for a NBA playoffs game. We went to Boston once. And we went to see friends a few times here and there, once in New Hampshire and several times in Providence. We went to Block Island once.
But for the most part, we just hung around and took it easy. I did a lot of walking and a lot of reading. We spent a lot of time in coffee shops. We went deep-sea fishing. We picnicked at local lighthouses. We entertained. We had lots of guests come up mostly from Atlanta to stay a few days. Most of the time, there were a few guests living in the house with us.
I have dragged our family through Europe and other complicated places in the past, and there is a time for that. Obviously, part of being a good parent is exposing your children to a lot of things. But for me at least, the best vacations are the ones where you don’t do much. From that perspective, this trip was perfect.
That being said, I did indulge in one thing I have always wanted to do: sailing lessons. Newport is the sailing capital of the entire world. The harbor and bay are just gorgeous and packed with sailboats. There is just not a much better way to spend a morning than out on that water with sails.
My goal was to get to the point where I could take a boat out in the bay without an instructor. I got close but failed to achieve that goal. Hopefully, it will happen next time we are there.
We also, by the way, looked at real estate. Our plan is to buy a second home within a few years, probably in Portsmouth (the town just north of Newport) and we will live there during the summer.
If you are considering going in that direction, here are a few things to know. First, Newport is a sleepy town during the week that explodes into a party town on weekends. I like that actually–I enjoy the party scene in moderation, but it can get rowdy. Sometimes on weekends, it got loud near the house. If you like quiet, stay in Middletown or some of the other little towns in the vicinity.
Also, while Rhode Island is a foodie place on a world-class level, it is tough going right now because of the same labor shortages you see all across the country. We actually largely gave up on eating out because reservations were hard to come by and when you could get them, the service was sub-par. In better times, the restaurant options are just legendary. If you need recommendations, email me.
Here are a few pictures:
It gets foggy on some days in Newport Harbor.
This is through the front gate of the Breakers, a Gilded Age mansion built by Cornelius Vanderbilt.
This is a striped bass I caught off the coast. It was too small to keep by a few inches.
We did a lot of sunsets.
Another favorite picture of mine because it captures my love of boats.
This is at Block Island, a tiny island a few miles off the Rhode Island coast.
A sailboat off the coast of Block Island.
Sailboat off the lighthouse at Castle Hill on the south end of Newport.
This is a very typical street in Newport. Some of these buildings date back to the 1600s and 1700s.
Another bay view from Jamestown, a small island adjoining Newport.
This is the first Baptist church in America. From its settling in the mid-1600’s, Rhode Islanders were a feisty bunch who did not fit in places like Massachusetts where the Puritans ruled (and persecuted) with an iron fist. Religious liberty was a huge thing for them, and they set the standard that the rest of the country would eventually follow.