Many of the best practices you'll hear on Acquiring Minds are about keeping emotion out of your acquisition.

Well today's guest found a business that made that impossible.

‍Jon Hyatt left a 20-year consulting career to search, and he searched the disciplined way. He landed on a dental roll-up thesis and got a practice under LOI.

Then, at 11:30 one Wednesday night, looking on Craigslist for a car part, a listing caught his eye: "American bell manufacturer, U.S. Navy supplier."

That listing was for E.J. Willis Company, founded in 1888, maker of the bells that hang on Navy and Coast Guard ships.

Jon fell in love on his first visit to E.J. Willis and walked away from the dental deal.

So today's is not a textbook acquisition.

Revenue is low six figures, all four employees retired with the seller, and the website had said "coming soon" for 20 years.

This looks more like zero-to-one entrepreneurship than ETA, as Jon builds a consumer brand out of a 138-year-old name and a set of bell molds. I press Jon on this point.

The story may remind you of Jay Boren from a few episodes ago, Jay who bought a one-product grease tool business run out of a living room while his business school classmates went off to consulting and banking.

Jay and I talked about the similarities between his story and Jon's, and he shared the advice he gives business school students at his alma mater:

"As these kids are looking at businesses [to buy], they'll come across one that really lights them up, even if they can't articulate why. That's the one to double down on. Buying and running a small business requires the owner to be all-in, and that just isn't possible if you aren't irrationally passionate about the project. The fear of bankruptcy doesn't motivate in the same way as the passion to create something beautiful."

A powerful message that sets the stage perfectly for today's episode.

Here is Jon Hyatt, newest owner of centenarian E.J. Willis Company.