HOMI VAZIFDAR: HOW HOMI VAZIFDAR FOUNDED UTAH'S AMANGIRI RESORT.

• Position: FOUNDER SERIES

I GREW UP IN INDIA BUT WAS ALWAYS mesmerized by the magic of America--it was God's country. I remember being glued to the radio every Saturday morning when Voice of America came on with news and rock 'n roll! My mind was made up.

Most of my family went to England for their advanced education but I broke with the ranks and came to the US. After completing university in India, I arrived in Berkeley, California in 1972 where I walked along Telegraph Avenue watching the hippies dance alongside vendors on the pavement. On the UC Berkeley campus, I heard bongo drums playing and counter-cultural oratory by politicos on soapboxes. The buzz was overwhelming and the atmosphere electric and vibrant. Within a week, I knew that I was never going back to India. America was my new home.

I started my first business after getting my MBA--it was an Indian restaurant in affluent Sausalito in Marin County. A friend from Berkeley and I leased a warehouse and opened the restaurant knowing absolutely nothing about the business. We got a bunch of hippies from Berkeley in painted VW vans to cross the bridge and build it and my parents sent us their chef from India who knew less about restaurants than we did. It was a real comedy of errors--but call it beginner's luck, that restaurant became the talk of the town.

Thanks to our close proximity to The Plant Studios where The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Starship, Fleetwood Mac, and hundreds of famous artists recorded some of their marquis hits, many rockers swung by the restaurant for dinner after studio sessions. We had articles written about us, we were on radio talk shows, and we received some awesome accolades. Then along came this Chinese man with his family and a literal suitcase full of cash--I had never seen so much cash in my life! So, we sold the restaurant to him. To this day, it still exists as a popular Chinese restaurant in Sausalito.

In 1982 I got married to an absolutely beautiful woman (still am 40 years later!) and then I messed around aimlessly for a couple of years on various start-up ventures before I finally said to myself, "you better get your act together." That's when I started my adventures into the wonderful world of hospitality.

In 1984, I met a man named Jim Feiler who ran this little company in the Bay Area called Feiler Bros. Fie renovated hotel rooms and bathrooms but he needed a business manager because he was growing so I took the job. Over the next 10 or so years, one thing led to...