Written Janua
ry 2010 (Revised 15 November 2010)
Pete gave me a lesson in the power of infectious longstories.
Pete is a roughly handsome and fit looking 60+ year old man, of medium build, with a rugged longshoreman’s face and New York-German accent, complete with bulbous nose and bald head (I assume it’s bald, he usually wears a fisherman’s knit cap). That’s Pete in the picture.
I frequented The Rocket Bakery coffee shop in downtown Spokane. I do much of my consulting work from home, and I go to area coffee shops for a change of environment. During my first year of visiting the Rocket, in early 2008, I’d watch Pete ride up on his old reddish-purple bicycle. He’d lock his bike to a wrought iron railing. He’d saunter in while hobnobbing with whomever he encountered. When he wasn’t jesting with a passerby, he’d purchase a news paper, work the crossword puzzle, which he usually completed, and leave the paper for others to read.
I was intrigued. So in early 2009 I said hello, and I buckled in for my conversational ride.
What did I learn about Pete? Pete grew up on rough streets in New York City, was married earlier in life, fathered a daughter, and now has a grandson. He doesn’t own a car “because it would be too much hassle”. Pete’s experiences include an eclectic job life. One of his early jobs was (in his words) “shoveling monkey shit” from animal laboratory cages. He was familiar with the sea. He had worked on boats, built boats, and he did a stint in the Navy. As sharp minded people do, he learned from his observations and started his own businesses. His most successful business involved selling and servicing industrial batteries. Pete said: “I don’t care what other business people think, business IS people. If you don’t like people, if you don’t like to help people, you shouldn’t have a business”.
In his mid to late 50s’ Pete decided he needed an adventure. He said that: “It’s natural in my family to be adventurous, to like and to get along with other people”. So Pete sold his battery business, bought a used sail boat, and proceeded to fix it up over the following two years. He said he had intended to roam the sea from port-to-port for the rest of his life, or until he couldn’t sail any more, whichever came first.
Pete hauled his boat to the Seattle coast, parked his pickup on the street, left its keys and deed on the seat for some passerby to claim, and embarked on his adventure. Pete’s sea adventure lasted about three months after setting sail from Seattle. His adventure culminated one day, eleven hours after leaving Coos Bay, Oregon, when he hit weather so torturous that it stranded, or tested, all the boats in the area. His boat’s deck-to-hull seal broke and he was taking on water. He called for Coast Guard assistance. After a heroic helicopter rescue, where he abandoned his listing boat and was pulled from the sea, Pete was back in Spokane living on his “limited, though good enough”, battery business retirement funds. Pete said: “I left my $100,000 boat parked under water off the Pacific Coast”.
I’m writing this tale in January 2010, seven years after Pete’s sailing adventure. We know about Pete’s visionary tendencies, so what did he do after his boat adventure?
It turns out that Pete likes (understatement) dance, poetry, and music. Over the past two years, “out of boredom” he said, and because “I give a damn, even though I don’t fit in”, he organized dancers, stage workers and others to perform charity fund raisers. From his success he was inspired toward a new longstory. Pete had decided Spokane “needs a high quality dance company”, and he was going start it. Perplexing even himself, he said: “what da hell do I know about starting a dance company”?! Pete didn’t let his ignorance deter him. He said: “I know good dance when he see it. I’ll find other people who know the rest”. Around Spring of 2009 Pete began shopping his vision around.
Pete offered up his vision, and the world served up people delighted for an opportunity to play parts in: public relations, graphic art, lighting and stage design, dance instruction, choreography etc. Pete even managed to assemble a quality board, including notables in local businesses and arts, to oversee his fledgling company.
Pete is the first to point out his rough and obstinate temperament, and his paradoxically too-quick-to-trust nature. He points out the hazards of starting something new in an ailing economy, and in a town where exceptional young talent is encouraged to seek fertile ground in larger cities. With his humble means and these portents of struggle it was a wonder to watch how far things progressed. Who would have guessed that so many would have enlisted in his vision?
Pete demonstrated to me that sincere pursuit of a vision, a vision that provides context and meaning catalyzing latent dreams in others, is the seed for an infectious longstory. Pete’s persistence and loquacious charm, his capacity to embrace his ignorance, and his courage to “fail”, comprise his constellation of longstory-seed nourishing gifts. Regardless of whether a dance company materializes in Spokane, Pete has offered and opportunity for co-creation through his infectious longstory. I celebrate what he has offered.
Thank you Pete!
Pete’s Bicycle