Month: September 2018

In 1975, Keith Jarrett was booked for a solo piano improvisation concert recording in the Opera House of Cologne. It was a highly anticipated show with a sold-out crowd.

The problem was the tech crew had set up the wrong piano. Not only that, the piano they had on stage didn’t have pedals that worked properly, it was too small for the venue size, the upper registers were too tinny and thin and the bass register was too weak.

Jarrett, frustrated, almost refused to go on stage that night. For whatever reason, he said Yes. At that moment, despite working in less than ideal conditions, he went out and performed, adjusting his play to the tool he had.

The Producer, Manfred Eicher, later said, “Probably played it the way he did because it was not a good piano. Because he could not fall in love with the sound of it, he found another way to get the most out of it.”

The Köln Concert would later become the best-selling solo album in jazz history and the all-time best-selling piano album.

Did the album become a success because of the conditions he played in? Did it give it the unique sound we want to hear? Would it have been better if he had the piano that was originally planned?

I’m not sure.

I do know that if he refused to play that night, it would have never happened.

You’ll never know what happens next unless you say yes.

In 1899, there were over 10,000 homeless boys in the streets of New York City. Many of them survived by selling newspapers.

These newsies, who made 30 cents a day, banned together and called a strike, refusing to distribute the newspapers of William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

A few individuals with no status, no permission, no authority, no money, no education stood up to the two most powerful men in New York and said enough is enough, follow me.

They changed things.

So, why can’t you?

What did they have that you don’t?

How long do you stand by and let injustice continue?

People have made great change happen with far fewer resources and far less talent and skills than you.

What’s your excuse?

…

“Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing.” — John Stuart Mill, 1867

It probably means they haven’t attempted to do something as important as what you are trying to do.

To do something important means creating a world that doesn’t exist yet.

And having that gumption to change things as they are to what could be…is pretty crazy.

Paula Scher has worked in graphic design for 40 years. Her work spans from album covers, to NY Times articles and the world’s largest independent design consultancy.

How does one continue to sustain this type of work?

As Scher says, “I’m driven by the hope that I haven’t made my best work yet.”

Think about that for a moment. Because it’s how Bob Dylan has made 38 albums since 1962. Or how Isaac Asimov wrote 400 books in his lifetime.

All artists are driven by this idea that today could be the day that you do your best work. And tomorrow, you get to do it again.

Until 1977, the opening credits for all movies started the same way. They would name the Writer and the Director to give credit to the impresarios making magic happen. But when George Lucas came on the scene, he decided to break all the norms in his magnum opus Star Wars. He wanted to do something that had never been done before.

Instead of starting the movie with his name, Lucas went with his iconic tagline, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, followed by a loud bang. That opening would become one of the most iconic in movie history.

He paid a price for his defiance. The Directors Guild of America fined Lucas $250,000 for his heresy, forcing him to leave the guild.

Here’s the thing, most of us don’t even think twice about how we start our presentations. We follow cultural norms and standards. That’s why every speech at the Oscar’s feels the same. Except for the ones that don’t.

We have been given valuable space when we stand in front of an audience. Don’t waste it by pleasing your sponsors. You’re there to make something happen to those who are seeking to be changed. Work in your Thank you as the presentation goes on. Whether you’re accepting an award or directing a major motion picture, figure out which rules to bend and which ones to break.

The ones that don’t fit in like the rest are the ones that we remember.

The Nose on El Capitan rises 2,900 vertical feet off the ground. To put that in perspective, that is over a half of mile of rock climbing.

The Nose was first climbed in 1958 by Warren Harding, Wayne Merry and George Whitmore in 47 days using siege tactics. Basically, they would hit their high point and come back down each day until they reached the top.

Two years later, the second ascent by Royal Robbins, Joe Fitschen, Chuck Pratt and Tom Frost was one continuous push that took seven days. A vast improvement on the style beforehand.

It wasn’t until 1993, when the legendary Lynn Hill would become the first person to free climb (climbing without pulling on gear) The Nose in just four days. She returned a year later and climbed it in a day.

This year, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold broke the speed record by climbing the route in 1 hour and 58 minutes.

Style gets better as time goes on. When you’re a pioneer, when you’re setting the standard for the rest of us, it might not be pretty. With time, however, you can improve the standard, you can raise the bar.

Revolutions destroy the unimaginable and unlock the impossible. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about climbing revolutions or cultural ones. Forward, we can improve on the matter of how things are done.

It’s not approval or R&D or coming up with the funding.

The hardest part of any project we do is convincing people to use it.

Which is why it’s much easier to build products for your customers rather than finding customers for your products.

No design is done. No blog or Tweet is ever flawless. No sonnet is ever complete.

Because it’s never perfect.

We build off the history that has come before us. Raise the bar and the standard for those who come after.

If what we are striving for is perfection and, yet, never achieved, then shouldn’t we redefine what perfect is?

Perfect is according to spec. Perfect is what we need in the moment, in the now. Perfect is having the device work the way we want it to.

And what we can strive for is solving a problem we don’t even know exists yet.

Until then, let’s hope that things like pacemakers and traffic lights keep working perfectly.

Finding the answers is easy.

In a world where access is right in your pocket, answers are instant, there is little value in memorizing the facts and formulas. We can just look it up. Fast and with extreme accuracy.

So, why do we put so much value in memorizing when the War of 1812 was? Why do we value competence over curiosity?

That’s a good question. We are seeing a shift in our economy. Slowly, we are moving from being told every step we need to take to the emotional work of drawing our own map.

With all the answers right at your fingertip, the trick is to ask questions the rest of us are not asking. The kind of questions we are too afraid/naive to ask.

Once you see what other can’t, it’s difficult to unsee it. What then? Will you have the guts to act?

Great things start with great questions. Not the other way around.

Where do all the good ideas come from?

How come I can’t write or design or paint like the greats?

If you want to write, you must type. If you want to paint, you have to paint. If you want to design, you’ve got to design.

There’s no way around this. You must sit where your aspirations want to be.

How many hours are you willing to work on your craft?

No one bats an eye when a basketball player practices in the gym. Writing, designing, painting…all the same thing.

By sitting at your desk typing, you are giving yourself a chance to do something great and something daring. Nothing more.