JULY 24, 2012 — It’s all about healthy irreverence and the big idea “But first, this just in…” THE CHARLESTON RIVERDOGS ARE TIED FOR 1st PLACE!
Our own RiverDogs president, Mike Veeck, was introduced to the Rotary Club of Charleston by member Dave Echols, GM of the RiverDogs. And in his easy, comfortable, gesticulating style at the podium, Mike wasted not a second engaging the audience with his quick wit and rapier intellect. On more than one occasion he warned, “Glad you got that one…”
For Mike, success in life is all about a few deceptively simple rules and concepts, but creativity and integrity rule tops in his book.
He walked us through a funny, but poignant short history of life in his home of 9 (“Afterall, Mom and Pop fielded a baseball team.”), where his father instilled in the future sports and entertainment promoter the “Rule of I.” Integrity, Imagination and Incongruity equal Innovation and Income. In other words, push the limits of creativity, within ethical bounds and leverage counterintuitive opportunities to be memorable and relevant.
He shared a big idea with the club that will engage a partnership between the RiverDogs, other baseball enterprises and 12 Navy Carriers to promote a Homerun Hitting Contest off the ships. Why? To benefit veterans and draw attention to their ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. “We should never get off our knees for these special folks,” Veeck genuinely implored of the lunch crowd, saluting the incalculable value our military veterans and active duty personnel provide our livelihoods.
“Ideas matter more today than ever before,” he told the rapt audience. “Ideas are the substance of all we do.” And in business, “service drives the experience, which drives the memories.”
As is his signature style, he masterfully, and unpredictably, syncopates the hilarious and absurd with unexpected, pithy, emotionally touching vignettes that are inevitably stirring and thought-provoking.
“There is also the Rule of O don’t forget,” he added. “Objectives, Obstacles and Outcomes. And always, Overdeliver.” He reminded us the value of “overdelivering” to win the loyalty of your audience. “Life has a way for forcing you to reset your priorities,” he said in context of a story of a dear cousin suffering from lung cancer who, when Mike observed his plight, reminded Mike without saying so that “there are problems, and there are problems.”
In closing, he noted that “Good ends with a D, which is for ‘Differentiate’ yourselves.”