The Netflix Fyre Festival Doc Proves Old School Business Practices are Still Essential
“What did you say?”
“I’m not trying to be a jerk about it, but this probably isn’t the right business to be in.”
The guy across from me at the coffee shop had reached out to “pick my brain” on how an NFL player he worked with could turn a profit on a start up record label.
Now, let me say that being a pro athlete doesn’t make you stupid or bad at business. Sam Acho of the Chicago Bears, who I’ve crossed paths with a handful of times, earned an MBA in the offseason. He’s got goals that extend beyond the end zone and is putting in the work to develop an off field skill set.
This was not one of those situations. A football pro handed a friend a check and then told his buddies he was in the record business. This isn’t uncommon, and it’s often geared towards the highest risk ventures. Pro athletes love to tell themselves that their childhood friends can operate car dealerships and steak houses with a famous name on the marquis. It almost never works.
Unfortunately, I was still in my twenties and still had a good bit to learn about tact. The “pick your brain” session (seriously, do these kinds of meetings ever go well?) turned into “how come we’re not making money.”
What I wish I would have said was “no one is doing the basic blocking and tackling.” Sure, it’s a bit awkward to use a football metaphor concerning an NFL player’s business, but that’s an apt description of what was likely going on.
Old School Still Works
I’m throwing my own generation under the bus here, but I’ve seen far too many Millennials think they can do business by throwing out the entire playbook…including anything that’s “boring.” Also, I’ve seen a good number of Millennial led startups crash and burn because they couldn’t execute on the most basic principals, regardless of the quality of their idea.
A lot of us grew up on the movie Office Space. It’s a hilarious film but a terrible business playbook. In the real world TPS Reports are necessary.
The problem with this scene isn’t the new cover on the TPS report. It’s terrible management.
The biggest companies in the world, from Uber to McDonalds, got to the top of their respective fields because of a fanatical obsession with process. Say what you want about McDonald’s menu, it’s stunning to think about how you can get the same burger in Moscow, Russia or Moscow, Idaho from restaurants run by independent franchise owners.
Of course, process doesn’t work without people, which is what’s really wrong with the above scene. Going from a burger people want to a large company that hits a market like a sledgehammer requires managers who are willing to get in the daily grind and slug it out with the same old boring problems.
Which finally brings me to the Fyre Festival.
So Bad You Become an Internet Meme
Fyre founder Billy Michaels probably won’t get to read this, since he’s in prison for the next years after defrauding investors and customers out $26 million.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and defend the guy. Based on what I saw in the Netflix documentary, I don’t think Billy was an intentional huckster. Like the NFL player losing money hand over fist on a record label, I just don’t think Billy thought he had to do the “boring” parts of business.
When a company has no TPS reports, it’s dependent on the employees doing their jobs AND the long term planning of the business. Billy was just a founder who outpunted his coverage, then tried to slap together solutions at the last minute.
Most of us won’t go to prison for it, but at some point almost all white collar workers are guilty of focusing on the exciting stuff and ignoring the boring details that get a project from concept to market.
If you haven’t watched the Netflix doc, it’s a great look at business. Billy Michaels wasn’t wrong for listening to his instincts. The destination music festival concept already works on music themed cruise ships and is just begging for someone to scale it up to the level of “Cochella on a Tropical Island.”
But Billy didn’t have the managers in place in time to get the water through customs and the facilities constructed properly. It’s a good lesson to all of us that chasing the shiny dime often leads to destruction. In many cases, the success we crave can be achieved just by doing a stellar job of managing what’s already on our plates.
If project management is a struggle for you, my podcast co-host Haydn Shaw has helped thousands of managers grow in that area, regardless of what natural ability they’re starting with. I’m pretty much just along for the ride on this particular episode. I’ve listened to it a handful of times myself as a check on where I’m at with managing projects.
Also, read Getting Things Done and The E-Myth ASAP: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It ASAP.
Show Up. Block. Tackle. Manage. Win.
Repeat.
