Heading to ...well to what?

I have realised this week that although I am very good at what I do for a living I don't really like it any more.  I've been an entrepreneur and consultant for so long that I had really stopped thinking about it.  But I have realised - finally - that the reason I have found it so hard to get work in the last year has nothing to do with the economy.  It has everything to do with not having fun anymore.

Those who know me well know how hard I can work and how much energy I will put into something interesting.  They also know how little I will do if bored.  It's not laziness - though it can look like that to a third party.  It is simply that the energy required to do the crap is greater than any financial or emotional reward coming back.

What brought on this bout of existential doubt was my involvement in a project to start a training company.  The core concept is interesting.  To train young Emiratis in the real skills they need to make a success in the business world outside of the very sheltered public sector.

But the reality is less interesting because to get set up involves dealing with a vast bureaucratic labyrinth and an even vaster cultural divide coupled with a need to do much more trivial and pragmatic deals just to get enough cash to survive.  It involves begging for funding and doing deals with people I don't really like or approve of.  It involves letting someone else, again, have control of my destiny.

And I'm fed up both with the bureaucracy and the permanent lack of cash in start-up situations.  I'm fed up with scrabbling for every penny just to survive another day and I'm fed up with never having to deal with the problems associated with successful businesses. 

So I'm going to start looking for a business that I can run, hands on on a daily basis, that has some major element of hospitqality involved and is already doing ok.  And I'm going to make it do well!  No more rescues, no more start ups and no more dodgy 'partner' driven deals.  Buy something and make it better.

I want a small boutique hotel in Sri Lanka or Costa Rica.  Ideas?  Connections?