Russian chess grand-master Garry Kasparov said that, “you have to be damned good before luck can be of any use to you.”
Which may be true in chess! But in life, a kiss on the cheek from Mercy herself can often be worth more than skill and practice combined.
At 1:08 on Wednesday afternoon, as the world and I learned about the protests which were turning into riots at THE Capitol, I grabbed my phone and texted the only person I wanted to hear from at that moment.
Four hours and one-minute later, with the stress of not receiving a reply weighing heavily on me, I texted again.
“I’m thinking about you” I said.
Which I was. Constantly at that point.
At 5:09 “Robert” replied: “I’m safe.”
"Robert" (not real name), is a United States Capitol Police officer.
Robert is good at the job, and has the commendations to prove it. But on January 6, 2021 as an insurrection was building on the steps of THE Capitol, Robert was home asleep. Resting-up at home between two 12-hour shifts.
A bit of luck in my opinion! Though I am not sure that Robert would agree with me.
Over the course of the next 48-hours, Robert and I stayed in close touch. I shared what was being said on the news about the event.
And Robert shared what was really going on!
On that fateful Wednesday evening as you were learning how the 6 PM curfew brought calm to Capitol Hill, Robert sent me this text:
Responding to my questions about how when faced with the prospect of being overrun, the USCP didn’t use deadly force, Robert got right to the point:
The insurrection has had the effect on leadership at the United States Capitol Police that you would expect a colossal failure to have; the chief and two other members of the senior leadership have either resigned or were forced out by the congressional leadership they had sworn to protect.
By Thursday, things on the news were quieting down.
But we all know how good of a job the news in this country does!
One officer died during the insurrection. Another one took their own life the next day.
I will leave it to the politicians to figure out what went wrong at the United State Capitol on January 6, 2021 and how a few hundred barely-armed anarchists managed to successfully attack the great monument to democracy. But until we know exactly what happened, I'll remain thankful to "Robert" and anyone else who is willing to put themselves between us, and those who wish to do us harm!
Between checking in with Robert and watching what passes for news in the country these days, I was able to get some work done.
THE Revolution, my web and e-commerce sites for independent paint dealers now has three live sites with Andriots.com and Paintcolumbia.com joining Townlinepaint.com in the ether this past week!
As these three sites and their owners get used to each other, I'll continue to work to get the last three MinuteDealers up and going.
Which is when the fun begins!
The three sites which are up now and the three which are coming (this week) are "minimally viable." Meaning they were done enough to go live, but nowhere near done!
Once the last of these original six are up, we'll go back to all six and add the missing pieces. Wallpaper, flooring, Farrow & Ball, Romabio, THE Big Green Egg, product videos and more will all be added to the sites before I can consider my portion of this job done.
Of course, the sites themselves will never be done. To access the opportunity which the internet provides these dealers, they will have to learn how to maintain these sites and keep them fresh. They'll need to hire digital marketing firms and engage in social media.
The sites will grant dealers independence to become their own local online brands. But as we all learned this week, independence must always be fought for.