When I and three friends open-ed the first Outback Steakhouse in March 1988, in Tampa, Florida, we hoped it would be successful enough to spawn a few more nearby, and perhaps some other kinds of restaurants as well. Since then, our chain of Australia-themed restaurants has grown—to some 900 locations and counting—and we’ve invested in another 300 or so concept restaurants that operate from under our corporate umbrella. Growth like that doesn’t happen accidentally, but it certainly wasn’t part of the original plan. We’d all started at the bottom of various restaurant chains, so we knew how grueling the business could be. We thought that if we had a little equity, unlike most chain-restaurant operators, we’d be able to run a profitable business and still have time to play golf and generally enjoy life on the shores of Tampa Bay. Besides, we didn’t see how we could ensure that things would be done the way we wanted if Outback grew very large. But before long, colleagues from other chains where we’d worked were bidding to open Outbacks of their own.