By Jak Daragjati

“It is what it is.”

This is, perhaps, the worst phrase in American culture today.  For me, a simple synonym for this phrase is: “Settle.”

Settle for less, settle for sub-par work, settle for second place. In other words, just take what you can get. “You get what you get and you don’t get upset,” is another phrase that makes me cringe, especially because parents use it to pass this philosophy on to their children rather than teaching them that they don’t always have to—and often, shouldn’t—settle.

In some instances, perhaps, you are forced to settle. That’s only when the fight is up, and all avenues are exhausted. I’d say at least 95 percent of the time there is another door open.  You just cannot be afraid to walk through it, even if the lights are off and you aren’t sure what’s in the room.

Our most recent clients took that last option: They walked through the beat-up door with the lights out. They worked their way up from everyday restaurant servers in New York to management, and then crossed the country to become venue owners.  Sure, it was scary. But while everyone said, “Don’t,” they DID.  When they ultimately ended up in Peoria, Arizona, looking to design a sports bar with East Coast attitude in the middle of the quiet southwest, the local AV integration firms told them: “It is what it is.”

Well, the new super sports bar owners, Adam and Ray, decided to call the other guys they knew who also hate that phrase.

C’mon, you didn’t think it would be a JD Blog without JD did you?

Oh yes, we did.

We flew across the country to design and build a complete audio, video and integration solution for the soon-to-open HeadQuarters Bar, Grill, and Sushi.

Yes, Sushi.

You see, people tend to shun ideas of forward thinkers.  So when a couple of guys from the NY Tri- state area want to bring modern East Coast ideas to another region of the country, others said it wouldn’t work.  So those same guys continued with their outside-the-box thinking to bring in some other outside-the-box thinkers.

And it wasn’t easy, but together, we made it happen.

Our crew at JD Systems first visited Peoria back in February to design a layout for the existing space.  After several hours of scrapping and re-working, the plan was set. Five months later we returned to build—and build we did. For 16 hours a day, five days straight we built. We could not be more proud of our team and our friends who own HQ.

Yes, there were some bumps in the road.  Mainly non believing contractors who loved throwing around our favorite phrase: “It is what it is.”  The best was the one who said:  “This is too many TVs.  It will never work”

My response was simple: “That’s what everyone on the East Coast said 12 years ago when we designed our first super sports bar.  Now we are here.”

What I wanted to say was shut up and get back to work, but, of course, he got the point anyway. When the JD freight train is in town, you either get out of the way or jump on board. They had no choice but to push forward and get the work done.

So five days, 51 TVs, five zones of audio, 15,000 feet of cable and several cups of coffee later we completed our task and returned home feeling accomplished.  Second place trophies are only there to remind you that first place is the only place you want to be. If you’re ever told by a well-meaning integrator that your system cannot be done the way you want, let us be the judge of that.