The road is long and winding

lyrics and music by ALO “The road is long and winding like a good mystery unfolding It twists and turns in colorful subplots and sunburns and fake out endings And sometimes my patience in the whole process starts bending”

Many years ago, when Rabid was but a glimmer in our eyes, I received some of the very best entrepreneurial advice I have ever received.  My mentor back in my Apple days, Dan Schneider, told me that being a successful entrepreneur had less to do with talent and effort and everything to do with the ability and willingness to stand at the precipice of despair over and over and keep doing it. I didn’t know it at the time, but Dan was right.  When I look back on the decade plus that Tobias and I have worked on this, the journey is marked with so many moments like that, where I grabbed his hand, took a deep breath, and kept on going even when it seemed impossible, staring despair in the eye.

“As I attempt to unravel the web

By traversing and rehearsing and perversing

Along the doubt-laden extension chord thread

Of my life”

What Dan didn’t tell me was that when you stand on that precipice of despair, you can see the valley of joy. You’re right there.  And maybe that is the truly hard part about standing there over and over, because you usually don’t make it off the precipice. You can see the joy. You can almost taste it. But so many times, it seems the mist rolls in and obscures the view. And it feels like a devastating judgement. “And in this life we're free to dream whatever we want to But that doesn't mean that your dreams are gonna come true Instead as a way of getting us to move

Life dangles your dreams in front of you And unable to resist the temptation, we continue”

Dan didn’t tell me that there would be people who would join our journey.  Rabidians would come along who would stand with us out on that ledge. That they would grab our hands, take a deep breath, and keep going with us. He didn’t tell me that this was true success, that this would bring the joy to us rather than us to the joy. The thing about a really great mentor is that they don’t say everything. They say enough to help you grow, and they trust that you will.

“And it's clear to me that this life is gonna be All about the dangling possibilities that keep turning in and turning out Yes it's clear to me that this life is gonna be All about the dangling possibilities”

If you’ve been following our saga, you know we’re on that precipice. At the 5/27/25 Village of Homewood Board of Trustees Meeting, there will be a vote that decides if we will be moving forward with our proposed redevelopment project at Park West Plaza. We’ve been working on this for more than two years and we’ve never felt a harder crossroads.  It’s often felt like the line between success and failure. We’ve learned it’s not like that.

“The road is long and windy

Full of twists and turns

But before you can rise from the ashes

You've got to burn baby burn”

It’s been important for our mental health to envision what the alternative to the Park West Plaza project might be. I like to call it having an OR. Having an OR has felt like the tiniest bit of control in a scenario where we really have none. It’s allowed the space and perspective to know it’s all okay because this mystery hasn’t been revealed yet. And we can always dream anew.

“Welcome to your barbeque Where we roast all the dreams That never came true Welcome to your barbeque Pig out and dream a new”