Go With The Gut
The other day I spotted a cool-looking ad for Caddis Eye Appliances. When I pulled up the site to check out the company, it turned out my old buddy Tim Parr is the founder. Tim is one of the smartest, craziest entrepreneurs I’ve ever met. We worked together years ago when Parr started Swobo, a line of American-made mountain bike clothing based in San Francisco. I remember asking Tim how the hell he came up with the name Swobo. He told me when he was a kid that if he thought something was cool, he’d say “That’s Swobo.”
Parr never knew any of the standard rules of business, so he broke every one of them. Once I caught him on the phone while he was departing a plane and heading to the Action Sports trade show in Vegas. When I asked him what the booth design was going to be, he said he was gonna figure it out on the cab ride to the convention hall. A few hours later, I called and asked what he did with the booth. He told me he stopped off at a toy store and bought a thousand little green army men and some Elmer’s glue. Then he spelled out SWOBO by gluing the little green bastards to the backdrop of the booth. That’s fast-on-your-feet thinking, Tuna Boat Flanagan.
Check out the Caddis Eye Appliances website. He’s gearing his spectacles to an over-50 audience with the idea of making aging cool. People over 50 control 80% of the spendable income in America—and only 7% of marketing dollars target that demographic. Tim’s point of view is, “We’re not in the eyewear business, we’re in the business of changing minds.”
Parr probably has the same thinking about colleges that I have today. Overcharging and under delivering. For a lot of kids, a college degree is an expensive ticket to nowhere. The smart move today is to go to trade school. A good plumber or electrician can make a great living and write their own ticket without worrying about being replaced by AI or having their job shipped overseas. And they can buy a house at the beach with the money they save on student loan payments. If trade school’s not your bag, take the Tim Parr creative route and start something of your own. Tim used to always say, “You don’t need a degree when it runs in your bones.” You got it, pal.
I was telling Jenn, our office traffic manager, about Caddis and my days working with Tim Parr. Jenn worked for a number of NYC agencies and is a real student of the game past and present. She said his thinking reminded her of Steve Jobs’ “Here’s To The Crazy Ones” TV spot. Today, some focus group or committee would’ve shut that one down before it aired. That’s why we need more people like Parr who have the guts to think different and do things their own way. Keep your dukes up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z4NS2zdrZc
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