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Klickitat County, in Washington State, has only one stoplight. For the most part, there isn鈥檛 much to do in this sleepy county, located in the Columbia River Gorge.

This nothingness, says Seth Tibbott, turned out to be the key to his 鈥渟tick-to-itiveness鈥� 鈥� or stubbornness, as his wife says 鈥� which over the course of 40 years saw him cobble together a $50-million business out of his company Tofurky (originally, Turtle Island Foods), which produces plant-based alternatives to meat that are derived from tofu and wheat protein. 鈥淚t took a long time, but I had no other option but to make my business succeed,鈥� Tibbott said.

The idiosyncratic naturalist whose wanderlust brought him from the campus of Wittenberg to the rain of the Pacific Northwest had no other career options once he settled in the town of Trout Lake, other than working for the forest service, logging, or laboring on one of the many orchards dotting rural Washington and Oregon, farmland divided by the mighty Columbia River.

鈥淚 made $30,000 from my business,鈥� Tibbott said, which at the time was selling tempeh. Not bad for a new business, except for the fact this was his total income over 10 years.

鈥淚 was learning to live on very little money. My business worked because it had to work. I had to make it profitable because there was no other option for me.

鈥淣o way out except forward. On death鈥檚 ground,鈥� he said, referencing Sun Tzu鈥檚 The Art of War.

It wasn鈥檛 a straight line from the days when Tibbott set up shop in an old elementary school in Forest Grove, Oregon, creating what he calls the country鈥檚 first five-grain tempeh to his multi-million-dollar Tofurky. He slept on the floor of his business. Drove a beat-up Datsun literally held together (the front door, at least) by bungee cord. And rented out rooms to two clowns named Ace and Space.

It was a period when Tibbott experienced long bouts of 鈥渆xistential nausea.鈥�

鈥淭hat鈥檚 my code word for being stuck in a place where you鈥檙e trying to figure your way out. You鈥檝e lost your bearings. Lost your vision and are just existing,鈥� Tibbott said about his life at the time he turned 40.

Oh, he also lived in a treehouse.

Living in a treehouse led Tibbott to write a few articles about, well, living in a treehouse, which led to him conducting research to write a book about treehouses, which led to him bunking with a bank robber.

鈥淚 traveled all around to research this book. There was this one guy in Olympia [Washington] who always had this new stuff in his treehouse. I always wondered where he got his money. Where he got all this stuff. Turned out he was a bank robber. Robbed 40 banks in Seattle. He would rob banks, then go up into this tree until things calmed down, and rob again.鈥�

What happened to this bank robber? Tibbott said he died in a shootout. What happened to the book about treehouses?

鈥淣o publisher wanted it. I鈥檓 pretty good at failing,鈥� he said. Tibbot wasn鈥檛 a failure. He had the right idea鈥攊ncrease the awareness of plant-based foods to wean people off of animal proteins in a sustainable way鈥攂ut at the wrong time. This was the 1980s when few Americans thought about plant-based protein, but with no way out from his business, he had to move forward.

Tibbott started experimenting with tofu, which led to a Tofurky Holiday Roast鈥攁 tofu loaf with rice and bread crumb stuffing that a vegetarian would eat on Thanksgiving, rather than just sticking with side dishes. Tofurky hit in 1995.

鈥淲e sold 800 roasts for Thanksgiving that year and that pivot in business changed my life.鈥�