Scott Scovill and Terry Lancaster, a couple of real live Iceholes!

No one has ever had to tell my buddy Scott Scovill to shit or get off the pot. When it’s time to go, Scott goes.

Scott is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the entertainment business, logging hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles a year touring and shuttling between his companies in Nashville and Los Angeles.

Nashville’s Moo TV handles video content creation for country music superstars like Alan Jackson and Brad Paisley and has been named Pollstar’s Video Company of the Year for the last three years in row. Centerstaging is consistently ranked the top rehearsal facility in Los Angeles.

And as if all that weren’t enough, on his days off he travels to Antartica and Russia just for shits and giggles, is a photographer, video director and plays a little beer league hockey on the side.

But 20 years ago, Scott was none of that. He was a struggling college student, failing out of school with zero credit hours, waiting tables at Howard Johnson’s and working odd jobs to stay afloat.

But a chance encounter and Scott’s massive, determined action turned it all around.

The road crew from U2’s Joshua Tree tour happened into the Howard Johnson’s in Albany, New York and sat down at one of Scott’s tables. They hit it off and invited him to the show, one of the very first to feature extensive use of video.

Scott describes that show as a paradigm shift. He saw clearly that the combination of entertainment and technology was a much better future than a series of dead end jobs and failing out of school. So he quit.

Quit school. Quit his jobs. Quit everything and followed the tour to the next town to see how he could help. And then he followed them to the next town. And then he sold his car and all his wordly possession and went on the road for good.

He didn’t sit around talking about it.

He didn’t spend months on end agonizing over the decision.

He didn’t brag at parties about how one day he was going to go on the road with rock stars.

He got his ass up and took massive, determined action. Right Then. Right There.

Because the only way to do it is to do it.

Time and success haven’t changed his style.

When downtown Nashville flooded a few years back, the newscasts were filled with stories about musicians who had lost all of their concert riggings and equipment in the flood. It made for good TV, but it wasn’t entirely accurate because all of that equipment didn’t belong to the country music superstars. They rented it… from Scott.

Millions and millions worth of electronics and video equipment were destroyed. And he never batted an eye. In fact it was probably close to a year later before he had an accurate estimate of the losses.

He was too busy working and rebuilding to stop and count.

He doubled down with even more massive, determined action.

It’s how he plays beer league hockey too. Much like myself, no one has ever accused Scott Scovill of being a naturally gifted athlete, but what he is is an eighth of a ton of sheer determination.

A bull in a china shop is not nearly a strong enough metaphor.

But that’s OK. Determination and action trump talent and planning any day of the week.

Terry Lancaster is the VP of Making S#!% Happen at Instant Events Automotive Advertising, father of 3 teenage daughters and a Beer League Hockey All Star, as if there could ever be such a thing.

You can connect with Terry on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.