I've just return from a week in Denver, Colorado and a week in Whitefish, Montana.  Colorado was for a conference and western Montana was a getaway with my wife- sans our teenagers. Whitefish is about 12 miles outside of the west entrance to Glacier National Park.  (Did I mention we wanted to get away?) 

I vowed to carry my phone but not really check the e-mails or -- and this was huge -- not post to Facebook or Twitter.  I won.  For six days I was silent in social networking. I'm here to say it can be done.

On the first day of our Montana vacation, I read "The Daily Inter Lake," Whitefish's local paper. Yes, the newspaper. I held it in my hands and drank my coffee.  Slowly, in each case.

In the business section of the newspaper, above the fold, was a photo of a guy putting bagels into an oven.  I flipped the page and saw the sub headline, "Man Takes Advantage of Sour Economy, Launches New Business." Erika Hoefer, who reported the story, described how "when the recession hit the Flathead Valley, Patrick Levitt figured he had two options: He could sit around and whine or he could get up and do something."

In the article, Levitt talks about his apprenticeship in the traditional methods of Jewish-style bagels, and adding a personal touch to recipes for his business.  His employees get serious, substantive training.  Pulling double duty as owner and bakery machinery mechanic, Levitt is proud to say, "we don't have all the drama a lot of places have."  I'm sure it hasn't been as easy as it sounds, especially since Levitt's big thinking includes opening several more bagel stores. 

I ripped that page out of the paper and folded it into my back pocket.  I thought, I'm sitting in a coffee shop in Whitefish, Montana, taking an "off the grid" vacation and still finding inspiring people. 

A colleague of mine always reminds me to "find the one thing that isn't being done, and go do it."

Levitt has done just that.  What about you?

*Edited by Chantal de la Rionda