Recently I finished a project that was many years in the making. It was the Wild River Music, Comedy and Film Festival that was held in St. Paul on Sept. 6-10. The process of creation, finding sponsorship, finding funding, booking the bands, planning the site, took a while. While this event is unique in so many ways, it’s really no different than any other beginning company. Now that I’m a week away from the end of the event, what strikes me as interesting are the people you meet along the way.
There is a wide range of reactions you receive from people when they see someone try to do something out of the norm. As a singer-songwriter, I’ve experienced that many times. It can be as simple as adding a new song to the songlist at a gig. That song can either work really well right off the bat, or achieve the opposite just as quickly. If the song doesn’t work as well as you thought it would, how long do you keep trying the song before you decide to give up on it completely? When I’ve released CD’s, each one has been so different from each other, that it was always a risk of what people would think. The profession I’ve chosen means that my success is dependent upon the whim of others.
Many of our early fans of Mick Sterling and the Stud Brothers have their own memories of when the band made an impact in their lives. Because of that, it’s natural to assume that they would want my music to remain similar to the comfort zone that was created when they found out about us. Whether it was due to my lack of discipline, or just the wide array of musical influences I had, I could never stick to a certain sound for songs I played a hand in writing. That’s why when every record came out, there was always a chance of a negative reaction. We strayed out of the norm of what people expect. When you do that, you risk rejection.
When you start a new project, it’s foolish to think that just because the idea may have come from you, that you can accomplish your task alone. You always need to have a person or persons that believe in you and are willing to give their advice and input to help you achieve it. Wild River was no different. The idea was ambitious. Fortunately, there were some key people that believed in the early stages, to get us to the final completion of the event. Sometimes those same people aren’t same people you work with at the end of the project. Sometimes that’s due to a conflict, sometimes it’s just as simple as a scheduling conflict, or the fact that they just wanted to help you in the beginning and let you take it from there. With my event, some helped a little, some helped a lot. Some wanted to separate themselves, some left with harder feelings. When they left because of hard feelings, it was tough to accept. Nothing worth doing ever comes easy. I had to remember that when things got tough putting this festival together.
As someone who likes to create things, the people who immediately dismiss an idea always puzzle me. What’s in it for them to dismiss it? Are they dismissing it because they think it’s helpful? Is it because there is a level of envy or jealousy? Or maybe they have no joy in seeing a person possibly succeed. I suppose there is a combination of those things, and many others, that compel someone to react like that. However someone reacts to your idea, you better be prepared to expect that reaction in whatever new venture you do, because they’re out there. You have to have enough faith in what you’re doing to withstand the feedback.
As I look back at Wild River in 2006, I see the things that worked and what didn’t work. The things that didn’t work were not a complete surprise to me. There were many people saying that those projects wouldn’t work. There were people saying that we were asking too much of people to grasp all the events we were providing for a first year event. In the end, they were proven right. Does that mean we should’ve never pursued them in the first place? A strong argument could be made that we never should’ve attempted those events, but as with every issue, there’s another side to it. The other side is a simple as this; what if they did work?
The particular events that were sparsely attended at Wild River wasn’t because the tasks weren’t completed. The films that were scheduled were shown on time. The bands that were scheduled arrived and performed on time. The missing equation was the venues weren’t full of people watching these great artists. While it was disappointing for my partners and I to see such light attendance at these venues, you can plan and plan, but you can’t plan on how many people want to show up for something.
Knowing what we know now, we won’t repeat some of these things, because you have to adjust things when something didn’t work. However, if we hadn’t attempted them in the first place, it would bother me more to think we didn’t try it just because of pessimism or caution. I would feel like we limited ourselves. Again, the opposite effect could have happened. All of those shows could’ve been heavily attended. Live and learn I guess.
I was very proud of what we accomplished at Wild River. I was proud of my partners who put so much time and energy in to making it a success. I was proud of all of the key people who made it succeed. I was thankful to have their advice and that they wanted to give it to us in the first place. I am also aware that you can’t shut out the people who aren’t as sure your idea will work as you are. Those voices are important to acknowledge. That doesn’t mean you have to completely change your plans in order to make them feel more comfortable with your idea either. It just means that you have to be as sure as you can that your idea is worth pursuing. You have to handle the risk of failure as graciously as you do when something succeeds.
In the end, there are people who want you to succeed. There are people who want you to fail. There are people who could care less and never even think about you and what you’re doing. Wild River is complete for 2006. Just like any new business, you learn from your failures and successes and move along. Wild River had it’s grand opening weekend. The Al Green/Taj Mahal show on Harriet Island was magical and we made a statement. Now it’s time for the business to continue. Open up the gates next year and wait for the people to pass through them.
