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The surplus of cookie-cutter musicians has destroyed any hope for the creation of value and a better-than-fair wage. And yet . . .
And yet it’s Yo-Yo Ma and Ben Zander and Gustavo Dudamel who are in demand, who make great money, and who are having all the fun. These are the guys who don’t fit in, who don’t follow the score, who know the rules but break them. They are artists. Many others have been indoctrinated by the system and frightened by the resistance into following instructions.
Across the news industry, processes and procedures for news gathering are guided by standardized news values, producing standardized stories in standardized formats that are presented in standardized styles. The result is extraordinary sameness and minimal differentiation.
The temptation to sabotage the new thing is huge, precisely because the new thing might work.
They think they’re being mature and realistic when they’re actually cowering in fear.
Our economy has reached a logical conclusion. The race to make average stuff for average people in huge quantities is almost over. We’re hitting an asymptote, a natural ceiling for how cheaply and how fast we can deliver uninspired work.
It turns out that the three biological factors that drive job performance and innovation are social intelligence, fear response, and perception. Public speaking brings all three together.
Public speaking also triggers huge fear responses. We’re surrounded by strangers or people of power, all of whom might harm us.
If there is no sale, look for the fear. If a marketing meeting ends in a stalemate, look for the fear. If someone has a tantrum, breaks a promise, or won’t cooperate, there’s fear involved.
Our sanitized, corporatized society hasn’t figured out how to get rid of the fear, so instead we channel it into bizarre corners of our life. We check Twitter because of our fear of being left out. We buy expensive handbags for the same reason. We take a mundane follow-the-manual job because of our fear of failing as a map maker, and we make bad financial decisions because of our fear of taking responsibility for our money.
Fear of living without a map is the main reason people are so insistent that we tell them what to do.
If nothing is do-or-die, then you don’t have to worry so much about the dying part.
The resistance would like you to curl up in a corner, avoid all threats, take no risks, and hide. It feels safe, after all. The paradox is that the more you hide, the riskier it is. The less commotion you cause, the more likely you are to fail, to be ignored, to expose yourself to failure.
Getting Things Done could actually help you get things done. A Whack on the Side of the Head could help you be creative. Sales training could in fact help you make more sales. There are books and classes that can teach you how to do most of the things discussed in this book. And while many copies are sold and many classes attended, the failure rate is astonishingly high. It’s not because the books and classes aren’t good. It’s because the resistance is stronger.
Don’t listen to the cynics. They’re cynics for a reason. For them, the resistance won a long time ago. When the resistance tells you not to listen to something, read something, or attend something, go. Do it. It’s not an accident that successful people read more books.
Here are some signs that the lizard brain is at work: Don’t ship on time. Late is the first step to never. Procrastinate, claiming that you need to be perfect. Ship early, sending out defective ideas, hoping they will be rejected. Suffer anxiety about what to wear to an event. Make excuses involving lack of money. Do excessive networking with the goal of having everyone like you and support you. Engage in deliberately provocative behavior designed to ostracize you so
you’ll have no standing in the community. Demonstrate a lack of desire to obtain new skills.
Be snarky. Start committees instead of taking action. Join committees instead of leading. Excessively criticize the work of your peers, thus unrealistically raising the bar for your work. Produce deliberately outlandish work product that no one can possibly embrace. Ship deliberately average work product that will certainly fit in and be ignored. Don’t ask questions. Ask too many questions.
Start a never-ending search for the next big thing, abandoning yesterday’s thing as old. Embrace an emotional attachment to the status quo.
anxiety about the side effects of a new approach. Be boring. Focus on revenge or teaching someone a lesson, at the expense of doing the work.
Wait for tomorrow. Manufacture anxiety about people stealing your ideas. When you find behaviors that increase the chances of shipping, stop using them.
It’s interesting to say it out loud. “I’m doing this because of the resistance.” “My lizard brain is making me anxious.” “I’m angry right now because being angry is keeping me from doing my work.” When you say it out loud (not think it, but say it), the lizard brain retreats in shame.
“I don’t have any good ideas”—actually, you don’t have any bad ideas.
“I don’t know what to do”—this one is certainly true. The question is, why does that bother you? No one actually knows what to
“I didn’t graduate from [insert brand of some prestigious educational institution here]”—well, MIT is now free
Your work is to do the work, not to do your job. Your job is about following instructions; the work is about making a difference. Your work is to ship. Ship things that make change.
The Internet is changing the circle we call “family and friends.” Twitter and Facebook created a new class of people; call them “friendlies.” If I can give the gift of art, for free, to my expanding circle of friendlies, why would I hesitate? Three circles have traditionally defined the cycle of art among fine artists, such as painters and sculptors. I think these circles can work for anyone giving a gift or making a change in the world. The first circle represents true gifts—items that an artist gleefully and willingly shares. This circle comprises friends or family or the
The second circle is the circle of commerce. In this circle are people and organizations that pay for your art.
And now, the Internet creates a third circle, the circle of your tribe, your followers, fans who may become friends. Friendlies. This circle is new. It’s huge and it’s important, because it enables you to enlarge the second circle and make more money, and because it enables you to affect more people and improve more lives.
cheaper and quicker, than ever before. When you focus on the second circle, when you work to charge more people more often, your art suffers. Instead, we profit most when we make the first and third circles as big as we can. Generosity generates income. This works whether you are selling paintings or innovation or a service.
Washing Rental Cars My friend Julie used to say, “No one washes a rental car before they return it.” The reason should now be obvious: Avis is not a member of our tribe. I paid for the car, they got the money, they should wash it. It’s a transaction. Transactions distance parties from each other. The transaction establishes the rules of the engagement, and if it’s not in the rules, you don’t have to worry about
each case, the lack of a transaction created a bond between the giver and the recipient, and perhaps surprisingly, the giver usually comes out even further ahead.
Hyatt Hotels is now treating different customers differently. Since they know who their best customers are, they’re working not to charge them more, but to give them more.
As we’ve seen, if there is no gift, there is no art. When art is created solely to be sold, it’s only a commodity. A key element for the artist is the act of giving the art to someone in the tribe. (To
Or consider the family that exchanges cash at Christmas. If everyone is giving and getting the same amount, there’s not much happening, is there?
people who were brainwashed by the last five hundred years of history, people who want to know what’s in it for them, people who believe there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch and every man for himself. These people have no art in their life because they’re unable to give a true gift. They want something in return. They want security or cash or both.
The hardheaded selfish capitalists among us will enjoy the next sentence: Artists are indispensable linchpins.
Some people think that you can’t be generous until after you become a success. They argue that they have to get theirs, and then they can go ahead and give back. The astonishing fact is that the most successful people in the world are those who don’t do it for the money. Old-school businesspeople argue for copyright and patent protection and say, “I can’t tell you my idea because I’m afraid you will steal it.” Old-school thinking is that you get paid first, you sign a contract, you protect and defend and profit. They say, “Pay me.” Artists say, “Here.”
Three Ways People Think About Gifts 1. Give me a gift! 2. Here’s a gift; now you owe me, big-time. 3. Here’s a gift, I love you. The first two are capitalist misunderstandings of what it means to give or receive a gift. The third is the only valid alternative on the list.
The reason these people believe they can’t afford it, though, is that they’ve so bought into consumer culture that they’re in debt or have monthly bills that make no sense at all. When you cut your expenses to the bone, you have a surplus. The surplus allows you to be generous, which mysteriously turns around and makes your surplus even bigger.
A gift well received can lead to more gifts. But artists don’t give gifts for money. They do it for respect and connection and to cause change. So the best recipients are the ones who can reciprocate in kind. With honest gratitude. With clear reports about change that was created. With gifts that actually cost us, not just a tiny gratuity or faux appreciation.
The pasted-on smiles of a guide at Disney World, for example, have far less power than the genuine connection a tourist makes—even for an instant—with a blue-collar worker manning the controls of the ride. That’s why telemarketers who read scripts never achieve the results of salespeople who actually speak what they believe.
The secret of working this flight, I’ve been told by the people who do the work, is to realize that the extraordinary service being delivered is not for the passenger, and it’s not for British Airways. It’s for the flight attendant. The most successful givers aren’t doing it because they’re being told to. They do it because doing it is fun. It gives them joy.
Clay Shirky and Doug Rushkoff have both talked about the public gift nature of the ’Net. Someone puts a video up on YouTube; why? No obvious revenue potential, no ad sales, no clear path to fame. It’s a gift. At first, gifts you can give live in a tiny realm.
Margaret Thatcher famously said, “There is no such thing as society.” While this is ridiculous on its face, the enlarging circle of gift culture demonstrates how false this statement is in practice. Society is where we give gifts. Someone in your office publishes a paper about a new technique, or gives a talk at a conference for no pay. You go the extra mile to please a small customer, or build an online forum to teach your customers how to get more out of your products (for no extra cost). These are all examples of the gift system at work.
The thing about reciprocity and the system of gifts is that it demands that the recipient participate. The humanity of the interaction leaves little room for someone to opt out, to remain isolated, or to hoard. If you take that posture, your circle gets smaller.
The street performer is a great metaphor for you and your work. She stands on the corner, busking for tips. Most people walk by. That’s fine. If someone walks by, changing your act to attract her or running after her is a foolish game. The performer seeks the people who choose to stop and watch and interact and ultimately donate. Great work is not created for everyone. If it were, it would be average work.
“Thank You and . . .” If you appreciate a gift, consider saying, “thank you and . . .” Thank you and I dog-eared forty of the pages. Thank you and I told your boss what a wonderful thing you did. Thank you and here’s a record my band and I recorded last week. Thank you and you made me cry. Thank you and I just blogged about what you did. Thank you and here’s a twenty-dollar tip; I know it’s not much, but it’s all I can afford right now. Thank you and how can I help you spread the word? Thank you and can you teach me how to do that? Thank you and you changed me, forever.
Money isn’t the way to show respect. Money is an essential element of making a living in this world, but money is a poor substitute for respect and thanks. Wall Street has learned this the hard way. When someone in your organization starts acting like a linchpin, order in lunch for the team, in his honor. When someone delivers more than you asked, give her more trust, more freedom, more leeway next time.
Respect is the gift you can offer in return.
