the slow motion wipe out

started before I got on the bike

When does a plan start going wrong?

Is it when the rock hits the derailer?

Do we go sideways once we wipe out on the trail?

If I were to tease apart every failure I’ve had, most of the lessons originate from something that got missed early on. This most recent attempt to sell an experience went sideways the moment I made the choice to lead our bike trip.

My problem?

I have lots of ideas of what I believe might be fun for others. Once I go to try to get others to engage, there’s usually silence.

That was the case again with this bike trip.

I could have planned and marketed this event for a full year and it still would have been as successful as a hen sitting on an egg without a rooster.

Nothing would hatch, things would get stinky and those most engaged in the process (me) would be disappointed.

I had a plan. The plan was poor to begin with as it had one fatal flaw - I didn’t really know who I was trying to bring along with me.

I needed to have an imagined person with a problem that I could communicate the value of my solution to. Without this, I may as well have been attempting to reach Santa, The Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny and a Fair and Level Headed activist all at the same time.

They don’t exist.

Neither does the non specific wandering generality that I hoped would pay cash monies to ride bikes in the backwoods with me.

Imagine asking the world to dance and no one shows up. That’s what my marketing efforts were like. I followed the ‘regular channels’ according to plan. That’s fine, to have a plan and put it into the world. For the love of god Jimmy, next time, know who you’re talking to.

Even with a plan this adventure began it’s quick grind to a standstill. I lost most of the moxie that sent me forward on one shit day two weeks before the ride.

And if you come back tomorrow?

I’ll tell you about the worst Friday the 13th that I’ve experience in the last decade.

I’d like to say that it’s a story of weird, metaphysical even mystical occurrences but I can’t.

It’s a story of people - ignorant people whose positions held and monies paid suggest that Friday the thirteenth should not have been such a shit show.

But to quote the great Jean Paul Bonham -the late drummer for Led Zepplin:

L’enfer c’est les autres

Love the people who love you

As for the rest?

They don’t need to go to hell, they’re already there.