I've learned so much from my own wanderlust that I decided to pass it on to my employees: Everyone gets a free one-month trip every five years. Here's why.

Plain and simple: Sabbaticals make business sense.

Bolivia, Morocco, Vietnam, and many other exotic locations worldwide, have taught me valuable business lessons. That's because I would throw most of my income from my first business into yearly treks that would flood my head with business ideas. These annual, three-month trips never failed to rekindle the fire in my belly needed to lead a fast-growing company.

My biggest light-bulb moment—the one that spurred the idea for my company—happened on Red Frog Beach in Panama. I was thinking that marathons and 5Ks had become, well, boring. It was time to inject military-style obstacles, mud, and beer. We created an event called Warrior Dash, which did just that. In three years it became the world's largest running series.

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