Strains of Billy Joel’s “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me” blare from overhead speakers while Denny Dent frenetically splatters paint on a large canvas.
The song changes to “Moving Out,” then “We Didn’t Start the Fire” as the image of a determined, perhaps enraged, Joel slowly takes shape on the canvas.
As the final musical bars fade and the image is complete, the paint-stained artist turns to the crowd and explains, “It’s not what you do. It’s the way you do it.”
Dent delivered his “two-fisted art attack” to hundreds of business owners at Ernst and Young’s National Entrepreneur Of The Year Institute in Palm Desert, Calif., late last year. His main goal may have been to entertain, but a quick conversation with the energetic artist suggests Dent maintains a kinship with his audience that goes far deeper than appreciation of art.
The meaning of success
Many entrepreneurs are admired for the size of their bank accounts, but true success can only come from the satisfaction of enjoying what you do.
Echoing the sentiment from author and business guru Stephen R. Covey, who spoke earlier at the conference, Dent reminds business owners to “Love what you do, because you can’t replace that with material success.”
Dent clearly loves what he does, even if his career came about by chance.
He was in Las Vegas on Dec. 8, 1981. Rock trivia experts remember that as a year to the day since John Lennon was killed outside his home in New York. A concert was planned to honor the late Beatle, and Dent asked the promoter if he could paint the musician as part of the event.
When he finished, nearly 1,800 people stormed the stage, Dent recalls.
“It hurts, but it’s OK. You killed a man, but you can’t kill his dream,” Dent says explaining the need to express his own grief at the time.
A promoter saw the work, got on stage and managed to work his way to the artist. Dent soon found himself opening for Steppenwolf, and his career has only improved since.
Finding your vision
Before Dent left the stage at the Ernst and Young conference, he completed a portrait of Bruce Springsteen to the strains of “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run.” He returned for one final portrait, national Entrepreneur Of The Year winner Richard Schulze, founder of Best Buy Co. Inc.
Though his profession differs from those he paints, Dent says he appreciates the sacrifices and contributions entrepreneurs make to the economy and their communities. Like them, Dent attacks his craft with everything he has, often working with several brushes in each hand. At other times, he uses only his paint-dipped fingers to capture the moment.
Without question, Dent’s activities are part showmanship, but doesn’t every successful entrepreneur need a generous dollop of glitz? For Dent, the art is his livelihood. But it’s also his passion.
“I have such a good time,” he says. “The music is the lead. It’s a dance on canvas.”
How to reach: Denny Dent, (303) 337-8800
Daniel G. Jacobs ([email protected]) is senior editor of SBN.