Rabbit Creative

Professionally, of course.

Like the persuasive Nick Naylor in Thank You for Smoking, David had a way about him that some found charismatic and powerful.* I emphasize some because I was firmly outside that “some” camp when I was working for him. I hated the man. One afternoon I stood up in the middle of a heated meeting, flipped him off, and called him a “cock knocker”. All this with a third-party in the room.

Strangely, I didn’t feel like the hero I thought I would. My reaction to what he said to me was inappropriate. Not because I think calling him a cock knocker or flipping him off are necessarily inappropriate, but because the only memorable argument I brought to the man in our 18 months of working together was something entirely without substance. I regret that.

While we’re on the subject, another opportunity I misdiagnosed and, in retrospect, wasted, was that of the Blackwell family. I remember one day asking Bill Blackwell, “Why are you in business?”. He responded, with a smile, “Because I’m a capitalist.”

I wrote shortly thereafter on this very website that I lost of little bit of respect for him. I don’t know if he ever got wind of that sentiment, but it doesn’t matter. I have nothing but respect for him now. Here is a man whose efforts yield an improvement in the conditions of not only himself, but also his family, his employees and certainly his customers; all individuals whom otherwise may not have received this improvement.

There is, of course, Justin. He, too tried to impart what he had to share. I believe now I missed the majority of his contributions. I thought I knew what was going on. I was smart, but I was acting stupid. Making decisions that felt right according to some garbled notion of “fighting evil”. I’ve grown since then. I’m still fighting evil, but this time I am better informed about its source. I’ve found some things I want to commit to, too. A person. An idea. An enterprise.

Fortune smiles upon thee, Rabbit. Thou hast found a…

* Yes, he was still a jerk, there’s no way around that. But everyone can be a jerk at times.