"Picture Pages": The Power of Visualization

We’ve all heard the phrase “seeing is believing.” And I agree. However, this sentiment applies to our imagination as well. In fact, I believe that we think in pictures more than most realize. And the more crystalized an image-story becomes in our minds, the more we stamp it as true. Case in point, the Wright Brothers didn’t need to see an airplane first to know that flight was possible by man. Which is why the phrase “whether you think you can or can’t, your always right” exists.

A simple example of the power of pictures is how so many people are impressed with the number of analogies I’m able to quickly access to help make some aspect of music more relatable to them. And like the gears of a car engine or manual watch, I see music as an extremely clear series of interlocking parts. Which in turn makes it easy for me to see its reflection in so many other seemingly non-related things. It’s really no different than recognizing your own reflection in a reflective surface, regardless of how distorted the image may be. Another example of how this idea plays out in music for me is when I’m getting set up for a gig. Many times people have wondered why I seem slightly disconnected to everyone around me when I’m either getting ready to head to a gig, or am in the middle of getting set up at the gig. And the answer is simple. As a growth oriented person, I’m always working on some concept. But before it’s baked into my DNA, I have to actively think about it to access it. So what might come across to any onlookers as anti-social behavior is actually me running through a “pre-flight” checklist to ensure that I still remember what I need to do to execute it. Another way to say it is that I’m trying to convince myself that the analogy that I’ve chosen to help me access said concept is as stable as I think it might be. So once I find the right analogy, and have played this picture-narrative out in my head enough times to believe I’m right, I can then stop actively thinking about said idea without the fear that I’ll forget how to access it when I need it.

The reason why I’m highlighting this idea of pictures is because I believe the idea is undervalued. When you think about the nature of meditation, or escaping to nature to find peace and quiet, you’re doing so because you’re seeking clarity on an issue or set of issues. And in doing so, you’re forced to sort through the vast catalogue of images/memories in your brain to assemble like a jigsaw puzzle that’ll hopefully reveal an objective picture of reality. Which, of course, means that as we absorb new information, will require us to reassemble the order of our picture-narratives so that they reflect a new version of reality that makes sense to us. Therefore, the gold that’s to be mined from this post is that if the lives we live are reflective of the choices we’ve made, and will continue to make, then the filter by which our decisions are distilled constitute the order of these picture-narratives. In short, every time we rearrange the order, we change the design of the filter, and ultimately the trajectory of our lives. Hence the power of visualization.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) When you change the way you look at the picture-narratives in your head, you change the way you look at reality (for better or worse). *Hint: always take an impartial stance when doing so.

b) The strength of our decisions is only as good as the filter we distill them through. So focus on inspecting the filter more than the thought itself.

c) Believe it or not, research and development (R&D) is simply the physical stress testing of picture-narratives. In other words, the continual challenging of thesis’s.  

Myths & Philosophies: The Birthing of a Constitution

When people say that they’re not rule followers, that’s not to be taken literally. What they’re really saying is that the only rules they see fit to adhere to are their own, as we’re all following a framework of some kind. That said, when two or more musical frameworks/philosophies are at odds with each other, friction on the bandstand becomes the most visible. Therefore, the only way to reach a sense of equilibrium is to balance enough perspectives against as many objective truths as possible.

Like the framing of our constitution, our sense of reality is representative of philosophies that were once distilled from a set of “tribal myths.” So until I can fully explore the myths and subsequent philosophies of another musician, I’m compelled to suspend my judgement of their capacity until I have this important information. In fact, a perfect illustration of this idea gone awry can be summed up by the 1984 decision by the Portland Trailblazers to draft Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. The philosophy that all centers should be over a certain height was driven by the myth that if they are tall, it increases the chances that they’ll be able to make and block shots easier when closer to a basket, in addition to grabbing rebounds easier. In other words, the idea that the success of a team should hinge around the position of a center is the myth. But clearly this concept isn’t an exact science, as MJ would go on to dominate the sport from the position of a guard. So because their philosophical calculations didn’t allow them the flexibility to identify other useful key performance indicators (KPI) for MJ’s growth potential, the Trailblazers passed on one of the greatest basketball players ever in exchange for a guy who would be riddled with a number of injuries.

In bringing this back to music, my experiences over the years have taught me to be cautious of being overly certain about the growth potential of others, as there have been a few people that have really surprised me with what they’ve been able to bring to the table over time, which I could have never predicted if my philosophy on permanence was too ridged. And in each of those surprising instances, my decision to keep them close always came after I had gained more clarity behind the myths of their philosophies. Which in turn gave me an idea as to how open their mindset was to entertaining other philosophies. So to paraphrase a quote by the great saxophonist Kenny Garrett, “I don’t need someone who’s at my level. I just need someone who’s trying to go where I want to go. I can teach them the rest of what they need to know along the way.” And as we know, it’s not uncommon to hear of a student eventually surpassing the abilities of their teacher.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Our sense of reality will always be representative of philosophies that have been distilled from a series of “tribal myths” from somewhere. So without the knowledge of the “myths” of another, our ability to comprehend and communicate effectively will always fall short to some degree.

b) Everyone is a rule follower, even if it is one’s own rules that are being followed. However, unlike our nation’s constitution, our internal constitutions haven’t exactly undergone the same level of scrutiny by the minds of as many critical thinkers. Not to mention, our personal constitutions aren’t accessibly on display for all the world to understand us better either. So if we can’t imagine there not being a well-defined constitution to help guide the culture of all organizations, why not apply this idea to our personal lives?

c) To have an expanded view of all key performance indicators helps to hedge against any bias we may hold towards one’s growth potential if at first they don’t appear to comfortably fit the framework of our wisdom (i.e. Michael Jordan).

Stage Fright: The Art of Public Speaking

As most people know, public speaking is right up there with some of the greatest fears that people have. So as always, I want to offer a sense of clarity about this issue and its remedy through the lens of Jazz.  

Simply put, stage fright shows up when our point of view is in a position to be questioned, and we know it hasn’t been sufficiently battle-tested by enough disagreeable people.

Years ago, when a brilliant pianist named John Chin answered a question I had about the application of chord substitutions, the answer he gave me was simply “conviction and symmetry.” What he meant was that while conviction can command one’s attention, symmetry is what keeps it (i.e. clear lines of logic). So what I’m calling into focus here is a believability factor. And the first person that needs to be convinced is yourself! So when the “math” in your head makes sense, it becomes much easier to present your point of view with the confidence needed for an audience to let you lead them along the journey of wherever your thoughts take them. So when speaking in public, the trick is to only speak about what you actually believe in, as when you tell your truth, you don’t have to remember anything. But when you try to overcompensate by punching above your intellectual weight to gain more credibility in a room, it’s anyone’s guess (especially your own) as to if you’ll accidentally talk yourself into a corner that you can’t dig yourself out of without egg on your face. So if you still don’t believe me that public speaking ain’t that hard, then imagine if I offered you $100 to get in front of 1,000 people to simply recite your name? You’d do so with no hesitation because there’s nothing to memorize, as you’re not confused about how to properly pronounce your name.

Suggested takeaways…

a) Before presenting your ideas in front of large gatherings of people, stress test your assertions in smaller settings with people who are willing to challenge your POV. *Start with respectable people.

b) Anxiousness comes from uncertainty about the future. And since the first thing you have to contend with is simply the sound of your voice, it’ll be helpful to record it enough times so you can predict how it’ll sound if you haven’t done so already. Because if the sound coming out doesn’t match what you hear in your head, it’ll distract you from being present with your audience. And if an audience thinks you’re distracted, they’ll be too distracted by your distractions to focus on the merit of your content. Thus diluting the impact of your message.

c) Since much of the fear and anxiousness we experience in life comes from the stories we’ve allowed ourselves to entertain in our heads—which is usually related to our projection of other people’s opinion of us—a good way to quell that feeling before having to speak is to introduce yourself to as many people as possible so that when you do speak it feels like you’re talking to a group of people you’re already familiar with. Also, when you’ve met enough people before your talk, you’ll be able to better personalize certain parts of your talk so that it becomes more engaging than that of a memorized script.

Music & Sleep: What wind instruments can teach us about our sleep habits.

While sleep is crucial for the rejuvenation of our health each day, it’s obviously the quality of our rest that matters more than the length. So while the impractical notion of condensing 8 hours of sleep into 1 would be attractive for overachievers, there’s still a decent amount of wiggle room for us all to move the needle ever so slightly towards this end.

Depending upon who you are, you may not know that the sole purpose of a tuning slide on a brass instrument, or mouth piece on a wood wind instrument, is to simply get you within a range where you can comfortably blow your horn without having to overcompensate with your embouchure to keep a note in tune. However, the stronger your embouchure and air support is (think force of air against a door frame), the easier it’ll be to keep a note in tune, regardless of the number of mechanical defects a horn has. Case in point, when a friend of mine let me borrow his soprano sax years ago, I didn’t realize until I sat in on someone’s gig that the ENTIRE upper register of his horn was a ½ step flat! Luckily I figured it out quickly, and was able to adjust on the fly. But had I not had the strength of my embouchure to keep notes half way in tune, it would have turned out much worse.

Now as an advanced society, it’s clear that we’re always seeking ways to maximize our effectiveness without sacrificing sustainability. So just like a musician who has to toy around with figuring out where the sweet spot is between maximum sound and control of said sound, I also believe that we have to toy around with finding where the sweet spot is between the least number of hours we can afford to sleep without sacrificing our alertness throughout the day. Therefore, if the position of our tuning slides and mouth pieces are like the duration of our sleep, then our embouchure and air support would be analogous to the blood flow needed to function properly throughout the day. And having tested this theory on myself over the past 20 years, I have found that the results are still consistent, in that when I personally get 5 to 6 hours of sleep, coupled with my morning routine of:

1) Drink one bottle of water

2) Full body stretch (30 minutes)

3) 100 sit ups, 100 oblique crunches (both sides), 100 flutter kicks, 100 standing twists, 50 side leg raises (for lower back support), and 50 push ups.

I can still stay awake for the rest of the day, even if on a rare occasion it involves me getting as little as one hour of sleep over a 24+ hour stretch. That said, filling my nutritional gaps with supplements for the past 18 years has been critical to my ability to maintain this kind of pace. So again, while the amount of sleep you get just gets you within firing range for being functional on a given day, it’s ultimately a mixture of diet and exercise (blood flow) that will carry you through your day with the alertness you want.   

Suggested Takeaways…

a) It’s not the amount of sleep you get, it’s the quality of sleep you get. So after you’ve ruled out that your nutrition, exercise, and bed are on point, it’ll become much easier to draw a bullseye around the number of hours you can realistically afford to get by on for your body to repair itself.

b) The number of hours you sleep are to your mouth piece or tuning slide position, what adequate blood flow and nutrition is to your embouchure and air support.

c) To dial in your exercise, nutrition, sleep, and bed situation is truly a forward failing proposition. But the number of insights you’ll learn along the way about yourself and why your tendencies are what they are, will yield dividends for years to come.

Sort by Price: The Value of Artistic Expression

An inability to assess the real value of something leaves us with no other recourse but to evaluate it against something more familiar. And in a world where speed is a virtue, the idea of stopping to smell the roses (long enough to assess value) sounds more like a cliché than a practical habit. Therefore, when you can’t ascertain the value of one thing over another, a race to the bottom where the lowest price wins ends up being the deciding factor.

One of the realities of freelancers is that we don’t scale, as only we can do the work that we do. Therefore, we must either trade a ton of time servicing lots of clients/customers, or we must work to obtain a smaller number of better clients/customers who have more income and a palette for the work we do. And the most tried and true way to cross this chasm has always been to market what you do for the smallest viable audience you can, as they’ll distribute all the heavy lifting among themselves to connect you to others that share their aesthetic. What’s great about this is that you don’t have to over commit both your time and resources to mass marketing strategies, as that would negate the idea of reaching the smallest viable audience. So once you determine who your audience is (i.e. people who share your beliefs), then you go all-in on talking to these people about what you do, and why they might care. Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight this one extra perspective, as I think it’s one that’s often overlooked.

When you think about the popularity of sports over the arts, it’s because there are a number of media outlets where practitioners of a sport have been allowed to control the narrative of their sport. And even if someone has never played a sport, they can still learn to interpret the game in a way that connects them in an authentic way to the tribes of people who actually play those sports, due to their understanding having been informed by credible sources. But when it comes to something like music, most people’s understanding of it is informed by people whose insights aren’t as well developed as that of a professional athlete giving commentary on the sport that they play. So when you compound the obscurity of this type of analysis towards music, coupled with the lack of exposure that people have to watching and hearing world-class musicians (which isn’t always synonymous with being world famous), there should be no wonder as to why there’s such a giant discrepancy between our collective imagination of what it even means to be a professional athlete versus a professional musician. So again, without the requisite understanding of what makes high level music what it is, why would the public have any other reason but to apply a sort-by-price metric to the music they choose to consume?

Suggested Takeaways…

a) It’s arguable that throughout the history of the world, all great civilizations have been weighed more by their artistic contributions as opposed to the strength of their military or GDP. So to increase the premium on our focus for high level forms of artistic expression could really shift the way we all connect to one another across cultural, political, and religious isles.

b) Developing a personal relationship with the smallest viable audience you can for your product and/or service, presupposes that that audience will tell others like themselves about you and what you do so that it gives them yet another reason to deepen their relationships to one another (i.e. tribalism).

c) If you don’t control your narrative, someone else will.

How to Land a Gig

In paraphrasing Quincy Jones, the day I learned to draw a line in the concrete between music and the music business, it too was the beginning of the rest of my life. So while “music” is the art of creating music, the music business is the art of selling music. And if you don’t understand the terrain of the latter, then you’re DOA, as we’d say in the military.

Now like the military, you don’t win battles when you lack knowledge of the terrain you have to navigate. And as it stands, there are many aspiring music professionals whose dreams of a prosperous future are being led to the slaughterhouse because they’re not being briefed well enough on what the rules of engagement will be once they deploy their skills in the “real world.”

Within the battlefield of Jazz, regarding how musicians monetize their efforts, those battles have always been waged on three fronts: small venues, education, festivals. But in all actuality, small venues and the education system have always been the bedrock under which this music has maintained its relevance in society. But for the working musician, the battle is really fought in the small venues throughout the world. So with that said, let’s take a look at what that looks like for securing a gig as both a leader and a side musician.

Leader

The first thing you need to know is that for many small-business owners, it took them getting a loan from a bank (or several) to open their doors. And for many of them the most readily available piece of collateral they had to secure their loan with was their home. Therefore, by definition, someone’s business is in effect a second residence for them. So when you reach out to a venue owner to ask for a gig in their “house” before rapport is built, it can send a message to the owner that your relationship with them is purely conditional. Meaning that, if there’s no opportunity on the table to perform, then you’re not going to be a loyal supporter of them and their establishment. So what may feel like a sterile business interaction to you, may be taken personally by them (depending on their temperament). So if you don’t come correct, you might get put in the “friend zone” without ever knowing it. And 90% of the time they’ll never be transparent enough with you to tell you this, thus leaving you to continue scratching your head while you watch everyone else get the performance opportunities you want. So as John C. Maxwell always says, “you have to ask for a heart before you ask for a hand.”   

Side Musician

There are two ways that you can go about getting a gig with someone, and both present their advantages and disadvantages.  

Narrow: This means you’ve keyed in on one or more particular people whose band you want to join. So the way to approach this is by learning their book of music SO WELL that you leave them no logical option but to hire you; or at least open other doors for you and them to work together in another capacity. The upside is that you’ll know exactly how to invest your practicing. The downside is that you might not get hired, thus leaving you to possibly feel like all that work was for nothing. However, like exercising, there’s never really a downside from doing it.

Wide: This means that you’ve taken the time to learn as many songs as possible across a wide array of genres. The upside is that you’ll probably become employable across the widest demographic there is. The downside is that it may take longer to develop a depth of understanding within any genre of music, due to having to spread yourself so thin. And if you’re starting this process as an adult who’s trying to live off of performing, you may find yourself skimming over many important musical details in order to quickly get your name out there as someone who’s worthy of being hired.

Suggested takeaway’s….

a) Business IS personal. So when you approach someone about a gig in their venue, your approach should be to figure out how to bring more value to them and their business FIRST. After all, they have what you want, not the other way around!

b) Just like getting a gig at a venue, the best way to show that you care about a leader and their music is to show up to their gigs. By doing this, it’s a show of how committed you are to learning their music the right way. So not only do you get to hear how the songs are to be played, but you also get to develop rapport with the leader in advance.

c) If you want to develop a reputation for being a super well rounded musician, then the best way to do so is to go to as many shows around town as possible to get a sense of what constitutes a “standard” in your area. After all, what’s the point in learning a bunch of songs that you can’t play with anyone in your area. So just like learning someone’s book of music, you can apply the same concept on a regional scale.

As always, leave a comment to let me know what you agree or disagree with. So let’s talk soon!

The Jazz Dilemma: What is it, and why might it be worth talking about?

Back when MySpace was at the forefront of the social media race, an old college friend used to have a profile tagline that read “I’d rather be relevant than famous.” However, it could be argued that those who are famous are indeed relevant, as the energy behind and frequency within our conversations about them make them so. When we talk about them, I believe what we’re really engaged in is the exercise of either reinforcing or questioning the framework of our own values, but at a safe one-arm emotional distance. And more importantly, who our values seem to align with, and how we ultimately feel about that. Therefore, it can be argued that the sliding scale of a person’s relevance is tied to the amount in which we think we might benefit from having a conversation about them. So if you believe that relevance can be equated to usefulness, then this begs the question of “what is Jazz and why might it worth talking about?”

As we’ve already seen, and continue to see within the styles of Hip-Hop, Rock, R&B, Pop, etc., they provide the public with more obvious ways of incorporating their perceived value (for better or worse) towards their everyday lives, as it gives people content to converse with, sell stuff with, and share within the realms of fashion and speech patterns—all of which are just cultural symbols that people deploy to make it easier for other members of their “tribe” to identify them within crowds. That said, let’s take a quick look at one of the most pervasive forms of music to come about in roughly the last 40 years: Hip-Hop.

It has been said that never in a time throughout the documented history of music have large contingencies of people (especially the youth) ever chosen to identify themselves as being specific products of a musical movement like they do with Hip Hop (i.e. “I am Hip Hop,” “I live Hip Hop,” “I eat, breath, and sleep Hip Hop”). Now granted, during the formative years of Rock & Roll, and even Jazz for that matter, we find that it was also the youth who rallied behind these two movements as well, as they found that they could use certain aspects of the music as a means of validating, to varying degrees, the energy behind the types of opinions they held. However, the power of Hip Hop—which really has to do with America’s long-standing fascination with anything associated with black male youth—is that its aesthetic is now just as interwoven into the everyday fabric of our society as is Starbucks and Nike. So how does this relate to Jazz you might ask? With the way that Jazz is generally marketed and presented these days, coupled with an ever increasing audience that has no significant history of having tried their hand at playing music of any kind at a high level (unlike with sports), the public’s relationship to Jazz is generally one of indifference. However, when people do think about some Jazz that they may have liked, it may have been related to a vocalist, as this is one “instrument” that we’ve all tried practicing behind closed doors. And to further prove my point about the public’s general feeling of indifference towards Jazz, is that their point of consumption is usually within public spaces where the volume is low enough to talk over, thus further conditioning them to regard it as a piece of interior decoration that doesn’t require much of their attention. A perfect example of this would be when the Grammies had Esperanza Spaulding, of all people, performing as background music immediately following her upset over Justin Bieber for “Best New Artist” in 2011 while they made their announcements about the next artist to receive their awards. Could you imagine them having asked Jay-Z to perform while they announced the next award recipient? Clearly, the answer would be no. So as you can see, what Jazz needs is a total branding overhaul, where the public is taught how to interface with it like what has been done with the more popular genres. But in order to do so, it would need to be done in a way that still reflects the hidden values that have helped to sustain Jazz up until this point. So the first step in re-branding this music appropriately lies within an understanding of what it even is in the first place.  

            The word Jazz, like any other style of music, is merely a marketing term. No more, no less. After all, real musicians put their energy into trying to play what they hear, not what to call what they’re playing. It’s also important to remember that the word Jazz had already been in circulation before it was ever attached to a sound. So a fair etymological definition for Jazz would be that it’s a term that was used to describe popular American music at the turn of the 20th century, whose roots can be found in both the Blues and Ragtime music. And whereas the Blues is more akin to an African-American sensibility towards early “American” folk music, Ragtime is more reflective of Western European Classical music and its residual effects upon the types of early Marches that were composed by people such as John Philip Sousa. However, the important piece of connective tissue between the Blues and Ragtime is the application of the black aesthetic on both. Hence, when you combine these two styles, and run them through an early black filter, what you get is a distilled version of the type of Jazz that people such as Louis Armstrong helped champion. So while this information is all well and good, the question still remains as to what, if any, might be the usefulness of Jazz on our society and the world at large?

            The answer to the above question is that Jazz, like sports and politics, is just another structural model that can be used to evaluate the democratic nature of relationships. So when you learn how the instruments function independently and collectively, a mirror suddenly appears that allows you to gain some insight into how either you or someone else is being. This is no different than how we can use fashion, food and drink choices, speech patterns, and choice of vocabulary as a litmus for how either we or others may be thinking and feeling at any point in time. In fact, I tell people all the time that even when we talk, we’re engaged in Jazz improvisation, as the words we use have to be relevant to the conversation, because if the goal is to build upon a set of ideas, then what would be the point of using words that few people can comprehend? That’s like talking to a baby about the stock market. What’s the point? So when I’m performing, I’m just using ideas that I already have a handle on. But it’s how I string those ideas together that will either attract or repel you from the “conversation.” In short, since listening comes before comprehension, and comprehension comes before action, then just like martial arts, Jazz is the human practice of creating a continuous sequence of appropriate moment-to-moment decisions, so that when it’s all said and done, you can look back with pride for the choices you’ve made.  

Fighting for the Soul of Jazz

There’s a phrase that says that the poignancy of anything has more to do with what something does as opposed to what it is. Thus, when conversations about musical purity emerge, and what the mechanics are for fostering it, I’m always fascinated as to where people land on this seemingly broad spectrum of understanding.

I’m writing about this because I came across an interesting FB thread today that touches on this very idea. And it had to do with the usefulness of certain terms that we’ve been conditioned to use as musicians. But what became apparent to me was that the comments people were making had less to do with defending their use of these terms as much as they were about the defense of their idea of themselves. And even though words are technically an arbitrary collection of sounds, our defense of certain words has to do with our subconscious defense of those who gave us those words, as well as what it must say about us for having aligned ourselves with those people. After all, if someone you don’t like uses a certain word, chances are you might go out of your way to avoid using it just to further distance yourself from them, as I believe the most telling symbol of alignment that exists between humans is in fact the words we use. So to be specific, the thread had to do with the idea of what it means to have “soul,” as well as what it means to play “mechanical sounding.” Now I’m sure there are a few others that could get added to the list, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll just focus on these.

One of the points that the author of the post made was that these terms are lazy stand-in’s for more specific terms that could be used if people took the time to find them. And I say lazy because these words have been in the ether forever. After all, it’s not like people just got hip to these terms yesterday and haven’t had a chance to flush out any better alternatives. So the response I offered up on the thread was that these terms were actually tangential to a more important conversation that relates to what it means to create music that connects with people. And that conversation has to do with musical intent.

When people are assessing the amount of “soul” in a person’s performance, I believe that what’s really being communicated is the degree to which one believes that the artist believes in what they’re doing. Case in point, when you find yourself in a debate with someone, the x-factor that the other person has that convinces you of their argument has to do with the way you can tell that every fiber of their being stands behind their argument; that they’d defend their position in a court of law, or be willing to physically fight someone over it if need be (which of course would be aided by the intensity of their non-verbal cues as well). So again, when we talk about musical “soul,” I believe it’s reflective of the degree of congruency that exists between what someone is doing and what they believe to be true deep down in their actual soul. As for the phrase “mechanical sounding,” this is what we focus on when the musical intent is cloudy. When the intent is clear, and the technique used is in support of that intent, we don’t question the use of said technique. But when the intent isn’t clear, we have no context by which to understand the use of the technique; no different than someone watching tv while clutching a hammer.

So in closing, if you’re someone who has ever thought about how to reconcile terms like these before, and especially these two, then hopefully this blog was useful.

A New Beginning: Transitioning Towards a Post COVID-19 World

Since the “Spanish Flu” of 1918, there has never been a time in recent history where we humans have been as collectively engaged in the re-imagining of what society could look like than we are right now. And like a frustrated parent who feels compelled to get their kids’ attention by more coercive means, we’ve now been brought to a standstill and forced to consider how we’ve been operating and how we think we should operate in the future to avoid being put in our place again. Now if you know anything about history, you know that the ones who have risen to great prominence and subsequent wealth did so amidst great collapses in society, as what goes up always comes down…but then back up again. I like to think of these periods as big magical windows of opportunity that only come once in a blue moon. And right now, I’d venture to say that we’re right back to the pioneering days of the California gold rush, or the oil boom of the late 1800’s, or the creation of our modern-day cities, or even fast food restaurants. And for those that lived through those periods, and had an inspired vision for their futures, they were able to recognize the historical gravity of their situation and respond accordingly. But now that the slate has been wiped fairly clean again, the ambitious ones will no doubt rise again to roll up their sleeves to seize the opportunity to work on making a better future for themselves and those closest to them.

Due to our current situation, I’m suddenly reminded of the biblical passage that relates to the idea that the meek shall inherit the earth. And when I think about all of the people who may have acquired some level of social status through their professions, it’s ironic to see who is considered an “essential” worker right now. Meaning, whose profession can add the most value to the world. For those who are mailmen, construction workers, policemen, firemen, grocery store employee’s, gas station attendants, truck drivers, farmers, garbage men, etc., they are now looking at the value of their jobs and themselves in a very different light, as is the case with the rest of us. However, while we musicians aren’t considered essential, it’s clear that we are necessary, in that in times of uncertainty we always reach for things that can sooth our temperaments. But even within that notion, the question becomes one of substance. Meaning, what’s the substance of that thing you are reaching towards to pacify your emotions? Is it drugs and alcohol? Is it food? Is it music? And if so, what’s the quality of those things you’re consuming? But like everyone who has been a pioneer in their space, the time to increase the quality of your productivity and scope of vision is in times like these. So if you’re going to survive this ordeal and prosper through to a post COVID-19 world, you’ll need to get lean with both your schedule and finances in order to identify what your non-essential time and money expenditures are so you can allocate more of those remaining resources towards a sound investment strategy for your future (whatever that looks like for you). “But an investment into what?” Simply put, identify a problem you have, because chances are others are facing the same issue. And when you find these people, you just have to be the one who can provide them with that thing. But if you can’t produce the solution yourself, then you’ll need to partner with those that can help to execute your idea. “But how do you know if you have a worthy idea?” My answer is that if your idea doesn’t fit into a personal crusade that you’d be willing to fight someone to defend, then you’ll probably lack the energy to see that idea through when the going gets tough. But when you have a crusade that you’re on, the best way to ensure your success is to create your own lane, as you’ll have little to no one in your way to contend with. And given that we’re living through a time where we’ve just seen many of the old rules fall flat, there’s now more room for you to experiment with new ways of solving problems. Remember, the best competition is no competition.  

Entrepreneurial Tendencies

One of the things I always say about us musicians is that we’re thrust into the world of entrepreneurship, yet no one tells us this. And as such, the frustration that many experience is due to having embraced the wrong mental strategy for this journey. More specifically, it’s the application of an employee mentality to an entrepreneurial landscape that creates such friction. Now I’m not trying to make a judgmental comparison between employees and business owners, but what I am calling into focus is that they are in fact two different paradigms, as the circle of concern for each isn’t the same. One obvious symbol of this is reflected in the tendency for employees to associate with other employees, and business owners with one another, due to the empathy factor. Hence the phrase “birds of a feather flock together”.

I’ve heard it said that the difference between an employee and an owner is that of a child and an adult. Now the funny thing about this phrase is that I’ve run it by MANY employees and owners of businesses over the years, and what’s always consistent is the emphatic knee-jerked responses of agreeance from owners and push back from employees to hearing it. So allow me to elaborate for a moment.

As a parent, you’re held accountable for EVERYTHING that happens on your watch. If your kid breaks a neighbor’s window, you must resolve the issue. However, you do something bad, your kid won’t be held responsible. But depending on the severity of the situation, your kid’s security could be impacted, as they’d be under the legal authority of your leadership. So like a company, it should be no wonder as to why more potential benefits are accorded to a parent/guardian to help offset the weight of responsibility that they’re forced to shoulder. So while I don’t think everyone needs to become an entrepreneur, I do think that it’s highly beneficial to develop entrepreneurial/leadership tendencies, because as a leader of an organization (just like the conductor of an orchestra) you HAVE to maintain a topographical awareness at ALL TIMES for what’s happening within your organization so that you can best assess the shifts that need to be made to navigate the ever shifting sands of the marketplace (or a song if you’re a conductor). As an employee, however, your only concern is to consistently check the boxes for satisfactory completion of whatever your individual role is that you’re being paid to do (like a side-musician). And once you check out of work for the day, you have the luxury of turning your brain off from work because you’re not being paid to think about your job in the off hours. However, for an owner (just like a parent to their kids and household), it’s impossible to fully mute the noise you’ll hear, internally and externally, from the concerns you’ll likely have towards the health and well-being of your business.

Now just like in business, musical decisions become easier to make when you have a clear mission and vision statement by which to filter your decisions through. And for me, the beginnings of gaining this type of clarity came after I asked myself this very important question, which was “is it more important to make 100% of my income from music, or is it more important to live a phenomenal life with music anchored in the middle of it?” You see, what I had forgotten over the years was that the second question was where I started! It was never the profit potential from music that drew me towards it. It was a combination of the relationships I had developed, and the fact that I was already experiencing a great life because of what my mother had provided for me, which gave me the latitude to just focus on growing as a musician without having to worry about any of the managerial issues that grown-ups have to think about every day. So when it became clear that number two was what I was really after, it forced me to begin thinking outside the box (like an entrepreneur) by searching for innovative ways of carving out a sustainable niche for myself that could hedge against competition/saturation, provide great upside for profit potential, flexibility to prioritize my most valued relationships at the drop of a hat, and a financial moat to help protect myself from the periodic downturns in the economy. And just like learning how to become a great musician requires being mentored by better musicians, I recognized that I would need to do the same thing within the arena of acquiring a more affluent lifestyle. And I think the reason why more people don’t put into practice such a simple concept as acquiring a mentor is for two reasons:

a) Fear from the guilt of potentially having to face a reality that might prove that the quality of the time you’ve invested thus far (especially if you’re past a certain age) might not have been as well invested as you initially thought, thus calling into question your assumption of your intelligence.

b) Fear from the abandonment-laden judgement of those that have gotten you to where you are if you prioritize a new relationship with those that can take you to the next level.

It’s important to remember that as you’re trying to make such a transition there will be a period of time between fully earning the trust and respect of the new relationship(s) and being possibly ostracized by the old relationship(s) for leaving them behind, that can leave you emotionally floating in no-man’s land until you’ve fully leveled-up or back down to what was once comfortable and familiar. And the reason for such potential push-back will be because you come from where your old association comes from, while they’re still stuck there. In short, your decision to potentially graduate onto a better situation would serve as an indictment for the quality of the decisions that they’ve made up to now. Therefore, they’ll either respond with lashing out to bring you back down, or they’ll slowly begin to disassociate with you first before you get the chance to “break up” with them first. Either way, expect for there to be resistance, as all success is gained up-hill.

So here are a few suggested takeaways…

a)  If you want to go up in life, you’ll need a tour-guide.

b)  If entrepreneurship is the street-facing vernacular in business for leadership, then the best environment to experiment with the development of your leadership acumen should be within the home.

c)  The relevancy of our personal and professional productivity can only be measured against the clarity of the mission and vision statements we set for ourselves.