Frank Sinatra Does Not Move Pianos

This story (and the principle behind it) comes from my entrepreneur guru, Dan Sullivan. Thank you, Dan!

When Dan was in the army, his job was to book talent to entertain the troops. One of the singers he contracted was Frank Sinatra. Dan watched Frank work for several days. His big takeaway:

Frank Sinatra does not move pianos.

Frank does two things and two things only: he sings and he prepares to sing.

Dan applies this principle today to his coaching of high-end entrepreneurs, but it applies equally to you and me as writers and artists, meaning …

Concentrate on the one thing you do best and delegate everything else.

My own big realization about myself from getting burned out in the California wildfires: I’ve been living the Frank Sinatra life. I write and I prepare to write.

I’m not worth a damn at moving pianos.

This is not good, since now all I have to do is move pianos.

The weird part, when I think about the notes and emails I get from my fellow writers and artists, is that often they are GREAT at moving pianos … but they experience trouble when they try to sing and prepare to sing.

Do I have a solution? No. Do I even have a suggestion? Maybe.

I’m trying to switch my own brain into piano moving mode, at least for 50% of my day.

Maybe for all of us when we have trouble sitting down to our writing or our art … we should switch into Frank Sinatra mode, even if it’s only for one hour.

We don’t move pianos. We sing and we prepare to sing.

The post Frank Sinatra Does Not Move Pianos first appeared on Steven Pressfield.