Andrew Webster

Growing up on the shores Lake Pepin and the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota, I followed my salesman and entrepreneurial father around like a curious puppy as he grew our family business.

My dad founded Wild Wings in the early 70's on our kitchen table surrounded by mom and us, his seven children.

Wild Wings was one of the nations first wildlife art print publishers, and quickly grew to sell wildlife sculpture, gifts, furniture and home decor through mail order catalogs, retail stores, franchises and wholesale accounts.

I worked for the company in countless capacities over the years, but the most influential time period started when I was about eight. My job was to run "out back" to the Wild Wings building and fetch my father (who never cared for watches or clocks, as they only told you "what time it wasn't") for the 10 O'clock news. 

I'd always go early as dad enjoyed showing me the originals and sculptures that would come in from some of the countries best wildlife artists (and some not-so-best); the blue-lines of the upcoming catalog he was working on; or a painting he was brokering from a long-dead grand master.

He'd always ask me what I thought. After a while I was able to say with hesitating conviction whether I liked a piece or not - to which he would ask why, and listen.

Then he'd point out other reasons I didn't see, or wasn't able to vocalize. A Canadian Goose whose head was black but should have been a little purple; a deer with a cow's anatomy; or a duck that did indeed look awkward and gangly (but when they're coming in hot and fast that's exactly how they flew - my first exposure to the age old trade-off between authenticity vs. aesthetics).

This is when I was nursed on business. All dad cared about was quality, beauty, treating everyone he met with respect and dignity, and making his customers happy by selling them as much as he could, knowing, (and correctly so) that while some things are expenses and some things are assets, only assets last - and have the opportunity to make people feel good about their decisions for years.

Years later when he sold the business to Cabela's, I left and started providing what he wished he had had all those early years, broad strategic guidance, and specific operational expertise for small and medium sized businesses.