Working on the Edge
Lately, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what it means to be on the cutting edge of something. It could be anything. In my life, I’ve met a lot of remarkable people who do things nobody else can do. They create art, music, explore science, write code, and they do it on the ragged edge of thinking. What they all have in common is the sense they are somewhat crazy and that they are alone and they all feel a little misunderstood. Think of the few humans who venture into space and what it must be like for them when so few have done it before. Just remaining calm with the knowledge that even the smallest failure could mean sudden death. It’s like venturing off for a duration of time with a gun at your head that could suddenly go off.
The world praises the results of these individuals, all while forgetting they were trying to hammer them to conform in route. We don’t celebrate the journey of these individuals at all. Most are ridiculed by someone on their way to a major breakthrough and standout result. They only get noticed when momentum begins to shift. Sure, a few see their process in route and encourage them, mentor them and quietly provide support, but greater society dislikes them along the way.
Well known names who experienced this, Steve Jobs fired from Apple. Elon Must continually ridiculed. I could go down a long list of individuals I know who dared to try something unique and got hammered by others along the way.
I’m going to do a Zoom talk about how to build a successful car show and the research and planning that went into ours. What I’m going to say in that talk is to be ready to go it alone with lots of opposition as you begin and build the event.
Even within the volunteers you need, someone will always be struggling for power and attention or have issue with something you do. It’s nothing but a gathering of cars on asphalt, but I never knew when we started E@RTC that it would be a constant battle to sustain the event and our brand. I’ve tried everything I can think of to explain what we do and why yet we still get in-your-face arguments from those who disagree.
We’ve become the largest and oldest weekly gathering of exotic cars and we did it by adhering to our mission and vision and because we stand for something. I’ll get all kinds of heat about the blog, where some love it, some hate it, but the moment we conform, we become nothing. It’s because of our unique identity that we have such a strong community following.
After all the behind the scenes work I do, I go there, try and remain in the background, and I don’t talk to that many people. I’m usually too busy solving a problem or making sure we’re keeping the event safe. Someone will still find me, and come and argue about something. I often wonder if we should even continue, but then the cars show up, week after week, and I see all the spectators and think, wow, we must be doing some good, and so I go home, after and nap, and then start the tiny battle, usually with an email about some issues, and so it goes all over again throughout the week.
This is when keeping your head on right matters and this is when you must just look at your results and persist. It’s what we do. We love our net results, so we keep going after thirteen years.
“Stand for noting, fall for everything.” -Letterkenny
We wouldn’t exist without our great volunteers and their constant good cheer. They keep me going when sometimes it’s a little discouraging to have argue over a car that doesn’t fit the theme. They make it all work. They keep it fun, so we keep it up, week after week, and it just keeps growing.