If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me.

One of the most ultimate forms of ESCAPISM happens the day of a Jimmy Buffett concert…and it starts hours before the show, in the parking lots.

Tailgating at a Buffett show is just as much fun as the concert itself.  And it’s truly people from all walks of life trading in the realities of everyday life for awhile, in exchange for coconut bras (men and women), grass skirts, makeshift tiki bars, cold beer and margaritas, music, straw hats, more music, and crazy Parrothead outfits.

Doctors, lawyers, students, slackers, beach bums, ski bums, moms and dads, cube dwellers and office folks…all partaking in a day long celebration of living vicariously through Buffett’s music.

For me, it’s a bit more than the escapism element.  For me, it’s a giant reminder of working extremely hard at emulating what Buffett has done by creating Snoloha.

One of my favorite songs is “Cowboy in the Jungle”.  The following chorus is exactly what I DON’T want to be:

They’re tryin’ to drink all the punches
They all may lose their lunches
Tryin’ to cram lost years into five or six days
Seems that blind ambition erased their intuition
Plowin’ straight ahead come what may.

Tryin’ to cram lost years into five or six days…scares the hell out of me.

I like to identify myself with this from another Buffett tune, “Oysters and Pearls”:

We’re a pretty mixed up bunch
Of crazy human beings
It’s written on our rocketships
And in early cave wall scenes

How does it happen?
How do we know?
Who sits and watches?
Who does the show?

Some people love to lead
Some refuse to dance
Some people play it safely
Others take a chance

Still, it’s all a mystery
This place we call the world
Where most live as oysters
While some become pearls

Launching a brand, and “hanging your balls out there” is definitely NOT playing it safely.

So this weekend, “If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me”…I’m at the Buffett show in Detroit.