Opportunity Knocks Twice; Chapter 12

Editor's Note: Utah Pulse is serializing the book, 'Opportunity Knocks Twice,' by Don Hale, as told to Mark Hale. We'll publish two chapters a week. You'll enjoy the wit and wisdom of one of Utah's great entrepreneurs, founder of Hires Big H. To buy the book, click here.

CHAPTER TWELVE
Don C’s Beef

In about 1974, I still had a portion of the Seventh East, Fourth South property I had not yet developed, a parcel southeast of Hires that had a row of homes and small apartments on it. I started thinking about which restaurants in town did well. One of the most popular restaurants was Sizzler, a steak restaurant. I thought, “People love steaks. Perhaps I should do a steak restaurant.” I thought about the idea of offering the best steak available at a reasonable price. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I decided to move forward with plans, raze the homes and apartments, and construct a sharp-looking restaurant. As the contractors worked on the building, Shirley and I worked on recipes. We decided to serve great steaks, Litzas salads, homemade soups, fresh fruit soup (a speciality of Shirley’s), and homemade desserts. We hired a young man who had once worked with Maddox Ranch House—the famous chicken and steak restaurant in Brigham City, Utah—to be our general manager. We called the restaurant Don C’s Beef.

Life continued at a busy, and sometimes hectic, pace. I worked at Hale’s Market a portion of the day, at Hires a portion of the day, checked on Litzas a portion of the day, and started the steak restaurant. My family did not see much of me during this time. And as the years passed, our children grew up. They went to college; some served missions; and all eventually married and had children.

As we opened up Don C’s Beef, we discovered that steaks are more difficult to cook than burgers, that steaks can be tough even with a good piece of meat, and that I did not know the steak business as well as I knew the burger business. I realized that to succeed in this new business, I needed to put in a lot of time. Competition for my time became even greater when my religious leaders asked me to accept an assignment to be a bishop.

I faced a decision whether to put my time and resources into my new business or accept the church assignment. I did not think that I could do both. The New Testament provides the admonition “seek ye first the kingdom of God.” I thought of how my life seemed better when I included the things of God in it, so I decided to trust in God’s counsel and see how things worked out. In 1976, I accepted the assignment to serve those in my area for a season.
Ironically, I went to the executives of Sizzler to see if they would like to lease my steak restaurant for a Sizzler location. To my delight, they said they would. What started out as a struggling business venture became a good business lease venture. The Utah Sizzler executives now run the location as the fine Ruby River steak house.

As is often said,

"Things work out the best for those who make the best of the way things turn out. "

At one time or another, incredible people come into everyone’s life. From a worldly perspective, one would think that incredible people are bright, talented, rich, and successful, but I venture to say that perhaps some of the most incredible people on this earth are those who do the most with the least.

One of the tenants in the apartments that were razed to build Don C’s Beef became a family friend. This man—I will call him Al—liked Hires very much. His favorite meal was a chili cheeseburger and a cup of coffee. Al was tall and gangly, usually unshaven, usually dirty, and always anxious to talk to me. He was definitely lonely. Al must have suffered some brain damage at birth or early in life, because he spoke slowly, with long pauses between words. Having a short conversation with Al took a long time. These conversations were at first annoying, but later became endearing as my family and I got to know him and his kind heart. Al did not seem very intelligent because of his metered speech, but he was. He had a great memory and expressed so much sincere interest in our family. He worked hard, rising every day at 4:00 a.m. to throw two routes of newspapers. Then, during the day, he sold mail-order shoes door to door. He did this for 50 years. I admired his industry. Al spent quite a few Thanksgiving dinners with us. He liked to call us at our homes—Shirley’s and my home and the homes of our children once they married and moved away. We all liked and admired him. Perhaps Al’s greatest quality was that he never felt sorry for himself.

Keep moving—motion creates energy, energy creates opportunity.