Ignorance and arrogance are your indispensable allies. Rational thought will kill you.

Ignorance and arrogance. Like love and marriage they go beautifully together. When I had my brainstorm, epiphany, Holy Shit moment back in 2000 for what is now my multimedia content creation business, I flew back east to meet the VP of Sales and lay out my grand plan. We were in a restaurant called the Naked Fish, on a Friday afternoon. (My wife thought the Naked Fish was a strip joint).

When I got through laying out all the possibilities of what is now everyday on-line activity, he said, “I don’t see it, it’s never gonna happen”. To show my level of ignorance, I was talking to a sales guy that day when I should have been talking to marketing. But that lady upstairs wasn’t having no parts of me. Too many wild stories. Though the thoughts of me being naked in a hot tub with 40 UNM college students fascinated her, in a strange kind of way.

But anyone who knows me, knows my ignorance knows no bounds. Then again, I would still be on a loading dock or in a multi-lingual kitchen today, had it not been for my unstoppable arrogance. When I believe in something, I put on my flesh tone football helmet and proceed with total abandon as Captain Dickhead.

I tried everything to get their “we know better than you” attention 2,000 miles away. I didn’t send 40 pounds of Cds and DVDs to everyone in house so they could use them as coasters.  But that’s what happened. When I had to go in, I coyly asked one guy,”what’s that round thing with the printing on it doing on your desk? He says, “I don’t know, they just gave them out”. I asked him if was the least bit curious or at least played it. He said, “nope”.

That’s the way it went for at least a couple of years but I was too stupid and arrogant to be deterred. I thought I’d invented electricity. I was in a prescient state and knew they would come to their senses. As mentioned before, I bought every domain name in Arizona, Las Vegas and New Mexico. $35 bucks a pop for two years. Such a bargain. Still, nobody was getting the big picture.

Now it should be noted they don’t call New Mexico the “land of mañana” for nothing. Making a sales call out there was like rolling a boulder into a cave. Back then, they were at least five years behind civilized technology. Selling a new product there was like jogging through quicksand. But that’s another kind of ignorance. Their date with the digital world would have to wait. Decades.

But me, I always swing for the seats. I want to blow my own hole in the ozone layer. I’m not here waiting for a bus. I’m doing shit as long as I’m here. I’m just stupid that way. Thankfully. My motto: don’t think, act. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Stay stupid. Check.

Once you start having rational thoughts you will meet resistance the likes you’ve never felt. Ignorance and arrogance are the artist and entrepreneur’s indispensable allies. Rational thought will kill you.

There’s four things you need to pull off your destiny:

• Stupidity
• Stubbornness
• Blind Faith
• Passion

Finally, Dupont sold out to Bristol Myers Squibb, they actually got it, saw the potential and I was relocated back in house with my own studio. As I look back, I never would have gotten off the ground without my ignorance and my truly unflappable arrogance.

Would I do it all over again? Of course not, what do you think I am, ignorant?

If you have any questions or need personal advice, please feel free to view my work here.

Bob O’Hearn
508-517-6714
bob@doubleocreative.com