This is the story of Dave Hitz, the company he founded and the management and problem-solving lessons he learned along the way and more important how he learned those lessons. Most of the lessons of the book came from or are related to the problem solving skills Hitz developed at Deep Springs, one of the most selective undergraduate institutions in the US. At Deep Springs students work and manage a ranch attached to the college in addition to their liberal arts studies. Deep Springs maintains a cattle herd and an alfalfa hay farming operation. At Deep Springs, the actual act of castrating an 800-pound bull, which earlier seemed impossible, became imperative. At the ranch Hitz learned lessons about self-sufficiency, risk taking, and trust, that were invaluable in the business word when he made the jump from software coder in a start-up to overseeing an engineering department of hundreds, and later serving as the company visionary.Through dynamic example and colorful illustration, Hitz shows how powerful learning tools are forged from experience and experience often comes from strange and unexpected places. Using humor and insight, Hitz's experiences an engineer thrust into managing hundreds of people and his time as a cowboy/student in Deep Springs , California , into a new type of business book. What will surprise readers is that problems aren't to be avoided but rather sought out eagerly. In many instances, a reader need not learn a new technique or process for dealing with problems, they just have to look at their own experiences in a new way.