Update November 2024, Bucks County's Ryan Abramson: Everything I Really Need to Know About Business (or life), I Learned by Watching the Savannah Bananas

UPDATE from Bucks County's Ryan Abramson, November 2024:

Did you see the news about the the $6.2 million sale of a banana taped to wall with duct tape? Artist Maurizio Cattelan's art installation "Comedian" sold at auction at Sotheby's in New York on Wednesday, purchased by a Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur for approximately $6.2 million. (Also, he plans to eat the banana!) The final sale was roughly four times the initial estimated value, which Sotheby's had listed between $1 million and $1.5 million.

As reported in Yahoo News, "Only one person can own the viral banana duct-taped to the wall art piece, but 62 people will own a collector shirt honoring it from the Savannah Bananas. The Savannah Bananas said that they sold out of a limited-edition shirt honoring the viral art piece that sold for $6.2 million. The shirt featured the batting banana logo with a single piece of duct-tape over it and was sold out within five minutes, the Bananas said."

Savannah Bananas frontman Jesse Cole explains that "different" is exactly why the business model works. He says, "Attention beats marketing and SPEED wins!"

My entire career, the Ryan Abramson motto has been: be authentic, be positive and be different. It takes huge courage to be different. The world is set up to force us to comply with "normal." As we grow up, school cultures, work cultures, social media trends and celebrities want us to "fit in." Yet, it is the individuals who set the standard that the rest of us follow. That's right, it is the individual, not the compliant masses that change the world. Being different can be very hard. In fact, people fear the different makers.

When you push the standard, innovate, outwork the competition and challenge others to do the same, only the rare few will step up. Instead, people are more likely to try to destroy you and preserve their comfort. Even the great disrupter himself, Dave Portnoy gave some hate to the Bananas. Although as a brilliant different guy himself, he probably saw the huge reach his opinion would get (and it did!).

Clemson Baseball Goes Viral for Being Different

In November, Clemson University welcomed the Bananas to campus. The Clemson Baseball team played host to the Savannah Bananas in exhibition action in front of a capacity crowd. It was the first time ever the Bananas have faced off against a college program of any kind. As the Clemson I