Expectations: Knowing the Game You're In

While setting up for a gig a few months ago, I got into a casual conversation with the venue owner about some business concepts when he made mention of a set of experiences he had had with a former employee to validate his point. Which my reply to his story was that they didn’t understand the game they were in. So before I expand on this notion let me start by saying that when you don’t know the lay of the land you’re navigating, you’ll always be inappropriate to your environment, and thus stay frustrated by the results you keep inadvertently getting. And with this employee, there was a fundamental disconnect with how they understood the nature of the relationship between employee’s and employer’s.

Have you ever had an idea about an artist only to have that dreamy perception shattered after you got to know them? I for one can attest to having been on both the receiving and giving end of this over the years. And I think the reason for this has to do with the fact that while we artists have an idea as to how we want the world to see us (i.e. as a beautiful and generous soul that matches the sound and lyrics of our music), it’s impossible to consistently behave in a way that’s not congruent with how we really see and feel about the environment around us. And as a result, this tension tends to surface from time to time because we’re not quite sure how to reconcile this problem (i.e. not knowing the game we’re in). So since the purpose of my blog posts are generally aimed at targeting the intersection between the ethereal aspects of art and the practicalities of life, I believe that the main culprit behind this disconnect between how we appear to the world and how we really feel about our place in it hinges upon the fact that we feel that we have little agency over how we can spend our time because we spend too much time trading our time for not enough money. And there’s nothing more frustrating to a creative than when we don’t have the time to follow our creative muses.

Regardless of the domain, people with an abundance of creative ideas are always regarded as artistic. And because of this surplus, we artists are made to feel like superheroes by our audiences when we’re in our natural performative habitat. But once the show is over, we’re always thrust right back into the day-to-day realities of our lives. So in this case, when we don’t understand monetary landscapes (especially the ones we’re in), one of two things will happen:

a) We’ll numb ourselves to our situation through either substance abuse or the burying of our head in our work as a reprieve from the emotional roller coaster we feel from this type of yo-yo effect; and with the hopes that the world will eventually return to a state of homeostasis that’s familiar to many of us.

b) We’ll work to address the root cause(s) of our dilemma, which usually has more to do with inadequate amounts of income as opposed to excessive spending problems.

An easy way to think about the game (lot in life) you’re in is to relate it to this idea. When you teach a young kid a sport for the first time, they’re constantly in violation of the rules of the game. But we dismiss it because we think their naiveté is cute. But imagine never correcting them as they got older. They’d eventually find themselves in a series of embarrassing situations where they’re completely ill-prepared to play the game. So when it comes to money, I believe many of us artists (and non-artists alike) have found ourselves in this exact same situation, as we watch some of our peers advance the quality of their lifestyles, leaving us to wonder how much of their success is predicated upon nature vs nurture. So in evoking the spirit of Quincy Jones, a turning point for me was when I too learned how to separate the act of creating music from the act of selling music, as they’re both two different landscapes that require a different set of tools and maps for navigating. Therefore, if musical literacy is needed to express oneself authentically through performance, then financial literacy and freedom is also needed to express oneself authentically in the world as well, as you’ll be free to disconnect more of the exercising of your values from any monetary concerns.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) You can’t effectively navigate your way across landscapes you have little knowledge of.

b) The concept of the brooding artist is that we’re wrestling with a certain amount of cognitive dissonance between how we really feel and the persona we’re expected to exude on stage, so as to appear attractive enough to get hired back. But I believe that the root cause of this discontent stems from the fact that the ROI on many of our artistic efforts rarely compensate us with what we need to live off of; yet we still feel compelled to take every gig that comes our way because many of us can’t afford to say no.   

c) To not know the nature and causes of the wealth of a nation relegates you to the position of an inexperienced sailor on the high seas without a sail. So in this sense, there are only three ways one can steer their lives within this global market economy we live in, which is:

1) Do nothing aside from crossing your fingers to pray that you don’t get crippled by the power of the ocean (i.e. learn nothing about money).

2) Learn how to leverage the power of the ocean to get you to where you want to go (i.e. learn how money moves).

3) Set sail for a lake so you can’t be blindsided by any currents (but know that you’ll also stay in the exact same place forever).