By Jayson Jarmon, CEO, LuxWorldwide.com
In some respects, entrepreneurial business is like a "Dark Ride" - those spooky, old rides you used to go on when you were a kid ... well, when I was a kid.
At the old Puyallup Fair here in western Washington, there was a ride called the Old Mill, which featured little boats passing through various scenes from nursery rhymes, scary of course, because it was dark and just plain weird at times. But it was ultimately rewarding, highly entertaining, and memorable.
Now, there are those of us who don't like the Dark Rides, who prefer the roller coaster, where it's all about speed and everything is outside of your control. And there are those who like to just stroll down the midway, not really wanting to commit to a ride or preferring to follow other folks as part of the general flow of things. Still others are more interested in the sideshow because of their interest in the odd and unappealing.
But my favorite is the Dark Ride. You are tantalized about what might face you around the next corner ... you can never really prepare yourself for something jumping out at you (sometimes it's a skeleton, sometimes it's a clown, sometimes you get all prepared for it, and nothing happens at all). You don't know if you're going to hurdle over the edge of a waterfall, or be faced with brigands, like in the worlds' most famous dark ride, The Pirates of the Caribbean. Often, the highlighted tension of the ride is broken by a comic scene or by the surreal impact of the ride as a whole. In the end, it is the ride you remember the most and the one you always are willing to do again.
The Old Mill burned down in the early 70's and was replaced with a series of pre-fabricated funhouses that are neither fun nor memorable. They forgot the essential element of the experience-that you shouldn't *really* know what will happen next in spite of it all. So show some resolve, have that nervous laugh in the dark, and then plunge in. It makes all of the difference in the world.
