What I've discovered is how much everyone working in business can learn from musicians. Whether you're a concertmaster accountant or a low brass player who coaches soccer, it's a rhythm that professionals hit that provides the clues to real success:
1. Teamwork
Musicians know that working together is the only way to achieve harmony. I know your boss is always yammering on about how they want everyone to work together smoothly and be a team player. It makes sense. Consider that the last time you saw the Stones, all four of them were playing a different song at the same time. Then they would sound like some of the progressive bands playing today (I kid because I love). Musicians know that their part will be different in each song (or project) and that knowing what each person contributes, no matter how small the part, is crucial to the final tune.
2. Follow the leader
Unless it's just two guitars strumming at a campfire, most groups have a leader, even a conductor. Every conductor has their own style, but it is the job of each musician to adapt to the leader, while applying his or her own particular skills to the ultimate success of the group. The conductor does not adapt to the group.
3. Musicians move to their own beat
Nobody would pay money to see a musician who only shows up on time, wears a nice suit and sensible shoes and eats a balanced dinner before turning in early. Musicians do what they want, when they want, just like cats. While a certain amount of business decorum is appreciated (see two items above), it's that individualism that really propels a company. It really is the people who make a place great, and it's the unique characters we work with that provide a new perspective. The lemmings who all dress and act alike may get ahead, but it's the weekend shredder who makes my place of business fun. As you're sitting at your desk today, don't forget to release your inner rock and roll and be very much your bad self.
4. Feel the joy
Did you ever see a group of musicians just sitting around and playing together? Next time, don't look at their hands, look at their faces and see the unbridled joy. It doesn't matter if it's a Beethoven symphony or an original tune about living in Portland, OR, there's real joy in playing and harmonizing that is unmatched anywhere. If you could feel ten per cent of that joy when you were doing your job today, how great would that be? If you're going to do a job...any job...look for the joy of those around you, of being paid every two weeks or just..being alive. It's all a gas, man.
Did you ever see a group of musicians just sitting around and playing together? Next time, don't look at their hands, look at their faces and see the unbridled joy. It doesn't matter if it's a Beethoven symphony or an original tune about living in Portland, OR, there's real joy in playing and harmonizing that is unmatched anywhere. If you could feel ten per cent of that joy when you were doing your job today, how great would that be? If you're going to do a job...any job...look for the joy of those around you, of being paid every two weeks or just..being alive. It's all a gas, man.
5. Practice,
practice, practice
You wouldn't want to hear a musician who didn't practice, would you? There is a sense of discipline the best musicians have, and a desire to play until they have mastered the piece they are playing. The same is true in business. There is nothing that compares with working on behalf of a company or client and seeing them succeed. In doing this, you are practicing. You are working toward perfecting something which will be enjoyed by and benefit another person. Just the simple idea of practicing is in the routine of every musician, athlete and artist. Are you practicing to succeed at your job today?
You wouldn't want to hear a musician who didn't practice, would you? There is a sense of discipline the best musicians have, and a desire to play until they have mastered the piece they are playing. The same is true in business. There is nothing that compares with working on behalf of a company or client and seeing them succeed. In doing this, you are practicing. You are working toward perfecting something which will be enjoyed by and benefit another person. Just the simple idea of practicing is in the routine of every musician, athlete and artist. Are you practicing to succeed at your job today?
6. Rise to the
challenge
Two weeks ago, my symphony friends played the monumentally difficult Mahler No. 5, a seventy-five minute marathon of great musical highs and lows not for the squeamish. To a person, the musicians I talked to mentioned the love of the challenge of playing this piece, and of the love of extending that challenge to the audience. In a nutshell, every musician looks forward not to rehashing past glories by playing the same piece all the time, but in mastering something new, something which may potentially baffle them at first, but that they hope to conquer and give them and the audience great joy. Look for that next challenge and rise to it.
Two weeks ago, my symphony friends played the monumentally difficult Mahler No. 5, a seventy-five minute marathon of great musical highs and lows not for the squeamish. To a person, the musicians I talked to mentioned the love of the challenge of playing this piece, and of the love of extending that challenge to the audience. In a nutshell, every musician looks forward not to rehashing past glories by playing the same piece all the time, but in mastering something new, something which may potentially baffle them at first, but that they hope to conquer and give them and the audience great joy. Look for that next challenge and rise to it.
All of this is not meant to make us abandon our rather
mundane jobs to take gigs for $25 and all the
Long Island Iced Teas we can drink, but we can all take a
page out of the scores of those who delight in playing together, following the
leader and practicing until their fingers bleed, all while being very much
themselves. The great ones simply rise to challenge after challenge, no matter how daunting.
I may not be a great musician myself, but being around so
many great ones has made me appreciate that the things they know extend far
beyond the notes on the page and they teach me a lot every time, though I'd never admit it to them.
--Rich Brase
redrich24@yahoo.com
Proudly affiliated with The Vancouver Symphony Orchestra
www.vancouversymphony.org
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