Cardinal Rules

Sunday January 18th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL/Kenosha, WI

Today was pretty low pressure mostly because I didn’t have to waste my time doing any of that high intensity stuff like watching a championship football game that I cared about. My Packers got knocked out before the playoffs even started so at least that didn’t distract me like it has in the past. I was calm and free to work on my growing mountain of tasks.

I didn’t watch either one of the games at all although I did watch the highlights. At first I thought it was kind of fun to see the Cardinals make it to their first Super Bowl but then I thought of how cheap and low class I’ve always heard their owner is and it soured me.

I’ve always heard how Bill Bidwell was a cheap bastard and was not fun to play for and then he ended up moving the Cardinals from St. Louis to Phoenix. Then his kid ended up taking over the team and that usually makes it worse. They succeeded despite themselves.

That franchise has long been known for mediocrity or worse but they’re in the NFL and that’s a sweet financial deal for everyone apparently. Especially a team like the Cardinals who have been around forever. No matter who owns them will make millions every year.

There are several pro sports franchises who thrive on mediocrity year after year. I think of the Los Angeles Clippers in basketball and formerly hockey’s Chicago Black Hawks. It doesn’t matter to the owners if the businesses compete to be the best. It’s a money maker.

The Chicago Black Hawks are an example of a team that’s really turning it around. The old owner died recently and he was the son of the guy with the smarts and hustle. He took it from the old man and ran it into the ground and left it there. Now his son is completely doing the opposite and has done all the right things and the team is turning around again.

I’m not a huge hockey fan but I am a fan of the Black Hawks because I see how much it matters who runs a business. They’re really trying to do it right and it’s showing. They are starting to win and I hear people talking about them and there is a real excitement there.

I don’t think the same is going to happen with the Cardinals unfortunately. I think it’s a one year wonder but I could be wrong. The owner probably won’t have to spend any more money now that the team has made it to their first Super Bowl but if they don’t win it it’s probably going to be their last one for many years. But at least there is some new blood.

The same story line runs in a lot of businesses I’m sure. I know it does in radio. When I was working in Milwaukee at 93QFM people wanted to like that station but ownership at the time never gave them any reason to. They couldn’t have cared less about what worked with the listeners. All they wanted to do was sell commercials and strip mine their cash.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money but they could have made so much more if they’d taken time and done it right. They were always operating on the cheap with no exceptions and after a while all the good employees left and eventually it went under.

I’m taking this all into consideration as I start my own business. I will undoubtedly have to make some difficult decisions as time goes on and I will surely think twice about it as I do. Being thrifty with a buck is a lot different than being a flat out cheap ass and I want to never be known as the latter. Nothing positive ever came out of that. Money needs a flow.

I’m not saying I have to be stupid and spend lavishly on unneeded things but squeezing everything so tight that it can’t even function is not the answer. I remember back at QFM when the equipment to produce commercials broke down and the parent company would NOT fix it. No matter how hard we tried to get help we couldn’t get them to fix it for us.

Tempers got short around the station because we were all sharing what precious few of the pieces of equipment that did work and it made it a tension filled powder keg. Nobody meant to be mean but it was all because management wouldn’t maintain their property.

The stupidest thing was it was only hurting THEM. Why did we need to have all of that equipment fixed? It was to make commercials to run on their station to make them lots of money that they sure weren’t going to pay us. But they were too stupid to see that point so they clamped the screws down even tighter and watched us all fight like caged animals.

I ended up meeting the genius who owned the station eventually and he was very typical of the prototype idiot son of the guy who started the business. This goof wore a big stupid cowboy hat and liked to drink and go to strip joints rather than attend to the station needs.

He was a yahoo from the word go and eventually it cost us all our jobs. But did he care? Hell no. He just switched formats and continued to suck money out of a mismanaged cow and his lifestyle didn’t change a bit. He was born in the lucky sperm club and that’s that.

I don’t know why I thought of all that today just from seeing how the Cardinals won the football game but I did. I guess it was festering inside all this time and had to come out. It was very frustrating back then because 93QFM was a real powerhouse in it’s day. It was a true legendary station but you’d never know it by the way it was run when I worked there.

Points well taken all. I want to run my business right and have others use it as a perfect example of how to do it correctly. I want to treat people fairly but also be able to operate at a fair profit too. I don’t need to rape people but I do need to eat so there has to be some kind of a middle ground in there somewhere. I’m going in looking to operate with class.

There are some sports teams that operate that way. I always thought Bob Harlan was as classy as it gets when he ran the Packers. I wish he’d still be there. The Steelers also have classy ownership apparently. It can be done but it just isn’t. Why? Because it’s not easy.

Nothing worthwhile is easy but I guess then it’s not worthwhile. I don’t want to half ass anything in my life and that’s probably why it’s taken me so long to get to even this point in my journey. I’ve gotten sidetracked for many reasons but now I am in my best position ever to make a touchdown run. I’ve started my turn up field and am headed for my goal!