Person of the Week
Earlier tonight ABC Evening News with Charlie Gibson presented their “Person of the Week.” Here they featured one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Mark Johnson, with some of the Playing for Change folks. If you have read some of my earlier posts, you know that I have held Mark up as an example of the qualities that entrepreneurs should strive for. To see what I mean, take a look at an interview with Mark on the Bill Moyers Journal.
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Obsession, passion, perseverance, capabilities—these are the necessary traits of a successful entrepreneur. We can all take a lesson from Mark Johnson.
Do Big Events Pay Off?
Does your town, or city, sponsor any big events? There is a small town in South Dakota that puts on an annual motorcycle rally that brings in enormous revenues. The event is held the first weekend of August and this year is their 69th event. The town is called Sturgis, and here are some interesting statistics:
• Population of South Dakota – 804,194
• Population of Sturgis – 6,442
• Number of event attendees – between 4 and 500,000
• Number of city licenses issued to vendors – 1,192
• Gross Sales for the 7-day event – $16.4 million
• Pounds of ice delivered to area – 6.7 million
• Tons of garbage hauled – 543
Obviously, this is a pretty big deal for this small town, but they have been doing it for 69 years and they have it pretty well figured out by now. Many of the local businesses make a good portion of their annual income and profit during this one week. How does your town/city stack up?
Oh yeah, they also issued 66 marriage licenses last year.
The Spirit of America
Mark Johnson is one of my favorite young entrepreneurs, because he exhibits the perseverance to follow his dream—and be successful. It’s the end of the week, so I thought I would post one of his latest videos, featuring two of the Playing For Change performers; Grandpa Elliott, and Louis Mhlanga, performing at Dodger Stadium. Even though he is blind, Grandpa Elliott obviously loves his country. This should give us all something to think about.
Mark Johnson’s dream is to bring peace to the world through music, and he is following his dream and persevering in spite of the challenges. He has carried this dream for 10 years, and worked steadily on it for the past 4 years—and he shows no signs of slowing down.
How strong is your dream?
Hope in the Midst of Chaos
This is a song from an upcoming documentary, produced by Mark Johnson, the founder of “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music.” Mark is the kind of person I envision when I speak of a “small-business person”—as are the musicians playing for change. Many of you have viewed this before, but I would like to share it here again:
A small business does not have to make mountains of money—it may not make much at all, but it does have to be founded upon vision, obsession, purpose, and commitment. Mark and his team have all these things, and I believe that small-business people everywhere should take a look at what he is doing and learn a lesson from this remarkable entrepreneur.
If you want to really know what vision, obsession, purpose, and commitment looks like, take a look at the following interview by Bill Moyers. It is 11 minutes long, and worth spending every second.
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