HALF-WITTED IN 1981
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Shoulda, woulda, coulda. So it’s the fall of ’81. I’m the Creative Director on Domino’s Pizza. Phone rings. It’s some slick Willie with a “great idea.” The idea is to create an entire TV station dedicated to music. What kink of crap is that? A whole station devoted to one subject? Outlandish. This guy must’ve just finished off one of those big fat 1981 ready rolls, the way he was talking. “The youngsters would really dig this. Imagine the promos,” he says, “on all the college campuses.” He won’t shut up. I’m annoyed. I wait for a pause in his pitch. Then I pounce. “Won’t fit into Domino’s marketing mix. Not interested. Best ‘o luck to ya.” Click. I’m absolutely certain that this guy was a total waste of time. Fast forward 24 years (and 34 lbs.) later. I rationalize that I blew off the birth of MTV by saying to myself, “you were only 24. Your brain was still forming. Don’t be so hard on yourself. It coulda happened to any idiot.” But the truth is, I blew it. The older we get the more we know how much we don’t know. Or something like that. What does this all mean? You don’t know half as much as you think you do. Or something like that. Me? I’m up to 5%. Which means for everything I know, like the sky is blue, there’s 19 things I don’t even know I don’t know. Like what makes it blue. The egos. The yelling. The arguments fueled by people who think they’re always right are, in hindsight, pretty darn comical. Remember, what you’re absolutely sure of today might not pass your hindsight test tomorrow. Never say never. Or something like that.
