Its Wrestlemania season everybody. It’s the most exciting time of the year for +WWE fans. When I people find out that I'm a wrestling fan I get hit with the usual questions and responses. Responses such as; Why?, You know it's fake right?, and Really? I’m a fan because I love being able to watch people who are passionate about what they’re doing, and have sacrificed so much in their lives, getting to live their dreams in front of a national audience. That’s the reason why reality shows like American Idol and The Voice are so popular. I’m a fan because I’ve learned a lot in the areas of marketing, branding, and promoting by watching them over the years. In fact I believe that’s one of the reasons that outside of music, I’ve always wanted to get into marketing and promoting as well. These are a few of the reasons why I'm a fan, and below I will cover three main areas why the WWE is one of my top five favorite companies and why I’m a fan. When it's all said and done I believe you'll understand why.
I can relate with their journey:
As a musician, that dreams of being able to do music full time, my journey isn't so different from the journey of say +Stone Cold Steven Austin. When you listen to their stories of how they got to where they are, it often starts out many years ago with them struggling. They'll reminisce about performing in front of crowds of 10 people, and if they're lucky 50 people. Sometimes as they travel to these places to perform they would end up having to pay to perform. The gas to get there and back would cost them $80 and they would get paid $40/50 for that night’s work.
During my time as a musician I’ve had the pleasure of getting to perform in fronts of hundreds and even thousands of people before. But I have also experienced thosemoments of having 10-20 people in the crowd. We’ve traveled hours away from home for a show with the only payment being the experience, but the experience alone was worth it because we love what we do.
Entrepreneurial Spirit and a Willingness to risk it all:
Vince McMahon, WWE’s owner and chairman of the board, love him or hate him, is an entrepreneur through and through, and he is not afraid to risk everything for an idea that he believes in. From the first Wrestlemania to their newly launched WWE Network, the WWE and Vince McMahon have stayed at the forefront of technology, often pioneering into new formats i.e. PPV and over the top streaming with live content, and rolled the dice on big ideas that if they didn’t work out would mark the end of the WWE. It’s widely noted that had the first Wrestlemaniabeen a failure there would be no WWE here today, or at the very least not as we know it today.
It’s this spirit, boldness, and willingness that musicians must embrace as well. The ones that grasp this are the ones that find the career/life that they dreamed of on the other side.
Taken failure head on:
Along with that entrepreneurial spirit comes the inevitable failure, and this is something that Vince and the WWE have embraced as well. The XFL is one of the most highly published failures of all time. Vince McMahon with all his boldness and brashness thought that he could take on and compete with the mighty NFL. Needless to say that experiment failed after only one season. They did bring some innovations to the game, and those innovations are currently being used by the NFL today.
As artists we can’t be afraid of failure either. We must embrace it as well. Every song isn’t going to be a hit, and we won’t be able to please everybody with the music we put out. But we have to be willing to embrace those risky ideas. It’s those risky ideas that quite possibly could bring us our greatest success.
And that’s why I’m a fan!
