The story has been told many times, in many different ways. I enjoy telling stories, but David Lee Roth can tell it better than I could dream about. Watch the story, and read on.
I heard about this story growing up, and like many other people thought, “What a jerk”. I still think it was a overboard to even cause $200 worth of damage. I absolutely disagree with entertaining ‘temper tantrums’.
If, however, I were to go on with life and forget this story, I would be doing myself a great disservice.
David Lee Roth did not want to be embarrassed. More importantly he likely did not want to be sued. He wanted to provide an awesome experience for the crowd that followed his band. He wanted to make sure that when people left the show he had just put on that they were happy. He wanted his ‘tribe’ to buy copies of his music, t-shirts, and whatever else he could put his name on.
Like David Lee Roth, I want to do the same for the people I do business with.
David Lee Roth was able to accomplish this by creating a system where he was able to double check the people that were responsible for making his show a success. As the old saying goes, “What gets measured, gets done.”
I am going to strive to take this example and create systems that ensure I am measuring the things that I want to get done. I want to make sure that I do not cause myself or the people I work with embarrassment for something that can be avoided by creating a simple system.
If all you had to do is put a line in a contract that says, “NO BROWN M&Ms” to find out if you are being set up for success or failure, wouldn’t you do it?