I met Edward "Eddie" Vacek shortly after I starting working at Children's Hospital in 2002. He was working as one of our security guards. Although some would find it unusual for a physician and security guard to become close friends, this comes as no surprise to those who know the two of us. Our conversations usually centered around sports and girls (two of Eddie's favorite subjects). In the spring of 2006 however we got talking about cooking and barbeque (two of my favorite subjects). Eddie told the story of how the previous summer he had smoked and sold ribs from a road-side stand on the weekends for a little extra spending money. He would sell Friday, Saturday and Sunday and was making up to $200 a weekend. He unfortunately did not have the appropriate license and health inspections and so was shut down. I offered to help him with the licensing and inspection process and found the appropriate contact information. He was back in my office 20 minutes later with the list of requirements to be up and running again. It would be relatively straight forward, and required surprisingly little in the way of expensive equipment. There was however one item that put the process out of reach for Eddie. The road side rib stand would require a professional grade smoker (and something to tow it). Since even a small unit would be a significant strain to his budget we talked about forming a small business. I would match his sweat equity with financial equity. We figured that if it all worked out we could make a little money (having a great time in the process). If it didn’t work out, it wouldn’t cost Eddie anything, and I would have the smoker of my dreams for my backyard (having a great time in the process).