WHOoPLA Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: The 26th floor.

At 35 years old, Lee Arnold was at the top of his game and his unique mix of experiences were perfect for what he was thinking he was going to try to pull off. To him, it looked easy and would flow very naturally. To everybody else, he appeared insane. It’s that “incomprehensible by the general masses” aspect that makes something art. When the rest of us cannot even imagine how something is created, we give it higher qualities because we have no idea of the process from which it came to be. Or, we want to deny it’s relevance as trickery or “a fix” to ease our ignorance. When the source of the magic is a salesman, it’s even that much easier to dismiss. But sometimes, in the pursuit of selfish interests, even salesman can end up doing magnanimous things.

Most people don’t view salesman as “creatives.” But if you know their general qualities, you’d see that they are as freaky as the best of ‘em. When they have an end goal in mind, they are tenacious at doing whatever they need to in order to get there. They’re acutely observational, flexible and imaginative- all while hanging onto that seamless facade of comfort and soothing confidence. It’s a VERY high art that takes many years to perfect- but once you have “the gift”- you’ll never go hungry.

Every salesman has his favorite part of the selling process. For Lee Arnold, it was “Getting Commitments.”

It worked like this. Find out what it is that the potential mark/customer really wants. Eek it out of them and then tell them, no matter how outrageous they’re demand may be, that you can get it for them. But there’s just one caveat. They have to make one little minor commitment. Typically, we’ve all seen it when we have gone to buy a car.

“If I can get the payment down to $200 a month…”

That’s the outrageous promise.

“…would we be writing a contract for this new Porsche today?”

That’s asking for the commitment.

The trap on asking for commitments is to offer up an idea so far fetched that the mark/client thinks,

“Sure I can agree to that because there’s no way you’re going to do that so I’m in the clear.”

You offer up the impossible in exchange for the promise. You get them to say that ever important first,

“Yes.”

Once they’ve said yes to that, you have their attention. They are engaged. From there you can begin to make a presentation or simply talk longer. The original offer just disappears in the course of it all and you end up, ever so gracefully, guiding them to a different conclusion. How you will get there is unknown. You just know that they want that car, and if you hang in with them long enough, they will buy it.

Lee Arnold had taken the art of getting commitments to stratospheric levels in his many years as a professional huckster. He was about to get the first of what would be many commitments in his quest to kill LPX.

With McElrath “engaged”, he began to describe to McElrath what he would do. He would create a massive national media hoopla. He would MAKE the band to come to town.

That was an outrageous promise. And, true to form, it was followed by a request for a commitment.

“If I can get them to agree- then I own it- right?”

“If you can get them to agree, then- of course- you own it.”

That was it.

McElrath left promising to forward the Who’s contact information back to Arnold the next day. Now all Arnold had left to do was…everything. But that was fine. He had come to love the idea of backing himself into difficult situations that he would then have to work his way out of.

“The best way I made things happen was by saying I could and then it forced me to do it. It’s one thing to keep it to yourself but if you say it to everybody, then you have no choice. It was either that or get out of the business. When you put yourself out on a limb- there’s no choice but to win.”

That explains why he didn’t just try to work the deal on the side quietly on his own. He had to say it to everybody to get himself out there.

“What else was there? That’s how Program Director’s are graded. Did you win? If you didn’t… that was your job.”

Even with his career experience, you could still argue that there was some naiveté. He didn’t know that this couldn’t be done. Nor could he afford to consider that. The wisdom of the fool was definitely in play.

He also knew that, with the idea now out there, if he didn’t jump on it, LPX might. They’d done it before.

I’ve read that people, in general, shouldn’t be afraid to “pursue a dream that only you can see.” That if we let others inhibit, guide or influence our ambitions, we are likely to someday regretfully look back upon our lives as unfulfilled. At this point in time, bringing The Who to Milwaukee was a dream that only Lee Arnold could see. That was about to change.

It may seem hard to believe, but in those first few moments talking to McElrath, Arnold concocted nearly the entire scheme in one fell swoop. As the writer of this, I first naturally assumed that there was a slow building process that was assembled over the course of, at least, a few days. But no, that storyline just doesn’t fit. He saw it all very clearly in that instant. It was likely the center pivot point of his whole life. And it was, as Arnold would say, “fuckin’ rockin’!”

In our talks he always misstated the QFM offices location as being on the 26th floor. His office was actually on the 21st floor. Nonetheless, I don’t think it’s a mistake for him to put himself hovering about five stories above the building, he was definitely out there on this one. Some might even say he was,

“High.”

~ by Scott on December 9, 2007.