I grew up in Ashland, Ohio, a city of 20,000 about 60 miles from Cleveland on I-71. During the early 20th century, Ashland boasted more millionaires than any other place in America as a percent of the total population. As you can imagine, the town if full of grand old buildings and houses. If you ever have a chance to visit, I recommend you go there.

When I was about ten years old, someone bought my dad a pictoral history of Ashland. He thumbed through it once, but I read it again and again for the next ten years. The images of my hometown in its golden age enchanted me.

Ashland had its own version of Hudson's on the most prominent corner of downtown. The Home Company department store was a five-story brick building that was the place to shop for several decades until Kmart built a big shopping center on the edge of town in the 1970s. The Home Company declined and was a vacant shell by the time I reached kindergarten.

I used to listen to the grown-ups talk about the need to tear the building down, but I thought it was awesome. Downtown stood in a kind of valley surrounded by hills. As you drove into Ashland, you could see the Home Company building peering above the rooftops and treetops. A neighbor of ours--a woman in her 90s--told me stories about her years as the elevator attendant at the Home Company.

I resolved that I would bring the building back to life. At that time, my purpose in life was to grow up to start a company that would make me rich enough to invest billions on my hometown. I would buy the Home Company and transform it into my world headquarters. This was my daily fantasy as I delivered the Ashland Times-Gazette after school.

I've always had a fascination with old buildings in need of TLC. In addition to the Home Company, I developed plans for every vacant building in Ashland by the time I reached high school. Even empty gas stations stirred something in me.

Since I had this kind of love in a small town of less than 20,000, you can imagine how hard I fell when I explored Detroit for the first time.