The Laziness Fallacy

The irony of the word lazy is that it’s a lazy form of analysis for inaction. In other words, it’s an expedient means of sidestepping the effort needed to ascertain why someone isn’t applying themselves as much as we’d prefer to see. However, if you’re a “leader,” this goes against the very nature of your position. After all, if everyone always knew what to do, there’d be no need for your position. So know that when you don’t center the conversation around how to clarify what the actual mechanisms-of-action need to be to generate results, then the conversation ceases to be a mechanical issue and instead becomes rooted in that of morality--which frankly only steals time and attention away from surgically identifying both the problem and solution.

That said, I believe that the root of inaction is simply clarity (or rather a lack thereof). And clarity around what, you might ask? Clarity around what the steps are supposed to look like, and what it might mean for the status of one’s position if they were to admit when they don’t understand something (especially when everyone around them seems to know what’s going on). So in these kinds of situations, it tells me a couple of things:

1) They’re not convinced that the work (or home) culture is as supportive as it might espouse itself to be when it comes to training. An easy example of this is the parent or boss whose open-door policy you doubt is all that “open.” #hiding 

2) There may be a real cultural disconnect between leadership and those within their charge that’s causing messages to be filtered through the communicative trough of skepticism, as neither side of the aisle is convinced that enough knowledge and respect exists for the pressures that either side has to contend with on a regular basis (thus causing workflows to move slow, which in turn could be construed as laziness). #powerdynamics

3) There may be a disconnect between what a candidate initially assumed the scope of their duties to be, and what actually lies in store for them. And as such, this will create a series of Wild West-esque standoff’s until either a renegotiation is met or they part ways. Either way, the narrative in the middle is likely to read by the establishment (at first) as if the new person is lazy and lacks the requisite work ethic for the job. #clarity

As you can see, all of these points center around the art of communication. Which, just like Jazz, means that it’ll be incumbent upon each of us to be as familiar as possible with all the different styles of communication there is if we’re to seamlessly flow in and out of any working environment we want.

In conclusion, I’d encourage you to see curiosity as being the antidote to “laziness.” And if the thought of taking the time to pump your breaks in this way feels like nails on a chalk board because you’re a hard charging go-getter, then it tells me that you have very little headroom for flexibility (which is liable to make you a liability sooner or later). After all, to want to go fast without the capacity to stop or change directions on a dime only makes the constant revving of your engine (i.e. the beating of your chest) a form of peacocking. That said, if you’re in a situation where you have to have immediate results because the stakes are that high, then by all means, put the pedal to the metal if you must and hope that you can contend with the consequences later. But if not, consider taking the time needed to build the kinds of systems and cultural conditions that can promote more clarity, transparency, and compassion within your home and work spaces.

The Doors: Re-contextualizing how we evaluate risks.

There was something I was reading a while ago that was related to existential flex’s in business, and how to think about navigating the risks involved. And the analogy used was that of two doors, where if one allowed you to walk back and forth through it, the other was designed with a doorknob on only one side. In other words, the first door would be a proxy for making an unlimited number of mistakes while the second would only allow you one shot. But this now begs the question of how to adequately tell the difference between the two when faced with important decisions to make.

So much of what’s required in achieving anything requires the ability to separate fact from conjecture. And the longer it takes for a person to clearly delineate the two from each other, the more fear has a chance to gain momentum by allowing our brains the time needed to create a compelling story that can justify why we’re dragging our feet. And if you’ve ever heard Mel Robbins’ talk about her “five second rule,” you’ll understand that there’s an evolutionary reason for why fear is amplified the longer you pause, which you can view here.

Story time…

Given that the name Marine has a connotation of water, means that you can’t become one unless you know how to swim. So when my platoon in basic training got to the swim qualification portion, the first test we had to pass was jumping off of a high dive into the deepest end of our swimming pool (probably about 14 feet deep), and with a bunch of our gear on (helmet, rubber M16, large backpack, and boots). And I remember thinking that there was no way I’d be able to swim back to the top with all that on. But what got me over the fear was being able to quickly realize that the worst-case scenario was probably the least likely case scenario, as the pool had plenty of instructors in it. And even if I did pass out from taking on too much water, they’d simply revive me on the side of the pool. So the question then became, “am I willing to pay this price of discomfort to become a Marine?” And once I told myself yes, I was able to move forward. So this was clearly a door #1 scenario.

Another example was when I was about to leave the Marines at age 22, and I had the choice to either try my luck with the unknowns of the NYC area or simply return home to the familiar surrounding of Portland, OR. And while the second option would have been 100 times more convenient, I knew that I’d always kick myself for not trying my luck out East. So again, because I was willing to pay the price of discomfort for an opportunity that I felt had way more upside than going back home, this too became a door #1 scenario. Was it nerve wracking? Yes! Was it worth it? Hell yeah!! And if I had to do it all over again, I absolutely would.

The funny thing is that as I’ve gotten older, I have found myself at times plagued with confusion as to whether or not certain opportunities were actually a door #1 or #2. But what continues to help re-center my perspective is when I remember that the only things in this world that actually constitute a #2 is the loss of life and limb. So in reality, any hesitation outside of that is really a response to the feeling that one might not have the physical stamina to go the distance to fight for what they say they want. That said, I’m sympathetic to why people can’t tell the difference between these two doors. Meaning, if we’re already fighting daily battles within our respective arenas, the thought of not having enough energy for those things—let alone the extra needed to stretch towards something more—can lead us to falsely project that something might be a #2 when it really isn’t.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) Outside of the loss of life or limb, everything is actually a door #1 scenario. But if it feels like a #2, then it’s only because you don’t have enough minds around you who are capable of seeing variables and strategies that you can’t currently see.

b) Everything we do requires energy. Therefore, the greater your physical capacity for discomfort, the greater your mental capacity will be for tolerating discomfort, as the mind will always tap out before the body does. So this is why physical exercise is such an incredible value add in our lives, and in more ways than any of us will ever fully comprehend.  

c) A lot of our risk assessments are predicated upon our conception of reasonability, which is nothing more than an issue of comparison. Case in point, the 4-minute mile.  

"Picture Pages": The Power of Visualization

We’ve all heard the phrase “seeing is believing.” And I agree. However, this sentiment applies to our imagination as well. In fact, I believe that we think in pictures more than most realize. And the more crystalized an image-story becomes in our minds, the more we stamp it as true. Case in point, the Wright Brothers didn’t need to see an airplane first to know that flight was possible by man. Which is why the phrase “whether you think you can or can’t, your always right” exists.

A simple example of the power of pictures is how so many people are impressed with the number of analogies I’m able to quickly access to help make some aspect of music more relatable to them. And like the gears of a car engine or manual watch, I see music as an extremely clear series of interlocking parts. Which in turn makes it easy for me to see its reflection in so many other seemingly non-related things. It’s really no different than recognizing your own reflection in a reflective surface, regardless of how distorted the image may be. Another example of how this idea plays out in music for me is when I’m getting set up for a gig. Many times people have wondered why I seem slightly disconnected to everyone around me when I’m either getting ready to head to a gig, or am in the middle of getting set up at the gig. And the answer is simple. As a growth oriented person, I’m always working on some concept. But before it’s baked into my DNA, I have to actively think about it to access it. So what might come across to any onlookers as anti-social behavior is actually me running through a “pre-flight” checklist to ensure that I still remember what I need to do to execute it. Another way to say it is that I’m trying to convince myself that the analogy that I’ve chosen to help me access said concept is as stable as I think it might be. So once I find the right analogy, and have played this picture-narrative out in my head enough times to believe I’m right, I can then stop actively thinking about said idea without the fear that I’ll forget how to access it when I need it.

The reason why I’m highlighting this idea of pictures is because I believe the idea is undervalued. When you think about the nature of meditation, or escaping to nature to find peace and quiet, you’re doing so because you’re seeking clarity on an issue or set of issues. And in doing so, you’re forced to sort through the vast catalogue of images/memories in your brain to assemble like a jigsaw puzzle that’ll hopefully reveal an objective picture of reality. Which, of course, means that as we absorb new information, will require us to reassemble the order of our picture-narratives so that they reflect a new version of reality that makes sense to us. Therefore, the gold that’s to be mined from this post is that if the lives we live are reflective of the choices we’ve made, and will continue to make, then the filter by which our decisions are distilled constitute the order of these picture-narratives. In short, every time we rearrange the order, we change the design of the filter, and ultimately the trajectory of our lives. Hence the power of visualization.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) When you change the way you look at the picture-narratives in your head, you change the way you look at reality (for better or worse). *Hint: always take an impartial stance when doing so.

b) The strength of our decisions is only as good as the filter we distill them through. So focus on inspecting the filter more than the thought itself.

c) Believe it or not, research and development (R&D) is simply the physical stress testing of picture-narratives. In other words, the continual challenging of thesis’s.  

The Power of Sound

We’ve all heard that the reptilian part of our brain is hardwired for survival, as it seeks to establish predictable patterns that can be used to give us shortcut answers on how to best respond to these patterns for our safety. And a simple illustration of this is the skeptical nature of young babies towards strangers. Meaning that as the child becomes older, they’re able to make faster calculations on the relative safety of a stranger that’s based on more complex environmental factors. But until then, their framework is pretty primitive. So why am I bringing this up? Well, it’s to shine a light on the importance of sound and how it influences so many of the decisions we make about anything. And like the relative assessment of threat levels, how we decipher incoming information will influence how we respond to that information (for better or worse).

According to Neuroscientist Seth Horowitz, author of the book The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind, we hear 20 to 100 times faster than we see. That everything we perceive with our ears colors/modifies every other perception we have. Therefore, in the same way that the world has gotten a big eye-opening look at what the long term effects can be from the use of things like smoking, cocaine, mercury, bloodletting, etc., many researchers can draw pretty compelling arguments now towards the positive and negative effects that certain sounds can have on our physical and mental states. And in this case, I’m referring to the power that music and lyrics can have on the subconscious when you listen to them over and over again.

Here’s a list a popular phrases from songs that have been uttered throughout the years that make up the lexicon of American speech and subsequent thought:

“I’m black and I’m proud.” -James Brown

“YOLO (You Only Live Once).” -Drake

“I like big butts and I cannot lie.” –Sir Mix a lot

“It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.” -Snoop

“Drop it like it’s hot.” -Snoop

“Shoulda put a ring on it.” -Beyonce

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror.” -Michael Jackson

“Don’t Stop Believing.” -Journey

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” -Aretha Franklin

“Don’t worry, be happy.” -Bobby McFerrin

“What’s love got to do with it.” -Tina Turner

“Girls just wanna have fun.” -Cyndi Lauper

“Get rich or die trying.” -50 Cent

“Straighten Up and Fly right.” -Nat King Cole

As you can see, lyrics such as these are instructive in both the literal sense and along value lines. Meaning, they can give a person a sense of direction for what to value if their values have yet to be defined. Now here’s the interesting thing. Because most of the music that has dominated our consciousness since the 1980’s has been associated with a video, it becomes almost impossible to disassociate a particular sound (whether purely instrumental or with lyrics) with a particular image in your head at this point if you’re under the age of perhaps 55. And as such, these sounds tend to get judged more by their imagined cultural associations than by the artistic merits of the song itself. In other words, if a hip-hop artist decides to do a country record, their hip hop fans might discount the merits of the recording strictly along culturally associative lines (and vice versa). The caveat, however, is that people who tend to be more open minded in this regard are usually well trained musicians (within any genre), as musicians are always on the hunt for musical ideas that they’d like to use, regardless of where they emanate—which this type of cross-cultural collaboration has been seen within the world of Jazz ever since its inception.

So the point here is that just like we should be mindful of our air quality, we should also be cognizant of the subtle triggering effects that certain sounds can have on our disposition when we immerse ourselves in them (think a combat vet every 4th of July). And there’s no demographic where the effects can be more readily observed than within adolescents, as they tend to connect more over shared music interests than anything else. And the reason being is the portability factor of it. Unlike something you have to stand still to look at on a screen, music can always be consumed, whether one is consciously focusing on it or not. And because it’s so readily accessible, music tends to serve as an efficient means of establishing clear social boundaries in the sand. Meaning, “people like me (who make me feel safe and validated), listen to things like this.” Another important notion to point out about the effect of music on the psyche is that anything that makes one feel seen, understood/heard, and validated, can greatly influence us. No different than the way we allow ourselves to be influenced by the assessments of a physician who we feel has done a thorough examination on our state of health to show that they really do see our situation for what it is and can validate why our point of view about our condition is what it is. Therefore, when you see a kid who appears to be more influenced by celebrities they don’t even have a relationship with, over the parents or guardians that they interact with daily, it’s because those celebrities are checking all three of these aforementioned boxes for them (for better or for worse).

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Music is central to the life of an adolescent because a job hasn’t become the central driving force in the structure of their day yet. Therefore, they’ll connect to one another through the shared symbolism of a genre sooner than they’ll connect over anything else, as again, the faucet of musical sound is always on, no matter where they are.    

b) Most people don’t take into account that most human learning is incidental and happens more frequently in places that are outside of dedicated spaces for learning. And much of that learning is absorbed through the innocuous and repetitive reinforcement of thoughts that are usually being inadvertently paired with certain sonic textures and visual cues.

c) When you consider how many hours our youth are listening to music on a daily and weekly basis, an argument can be made that it’s more than any other activity. Therefore, the role that it plays in their lives cannot be discounted. In fact, to know very little about the music a child listens to, and why, could suggest that you don’t know as much about that child as you’d like to think; in that it supplies them with not only a great deal of the vocabulary they connect to others with, but it also helps to alter or amplify the moods they may find themselves in. And lastly, the artist they subscribe to can also serve as significant models for how to think about attire, conduct, and social circles.

The Value of Culture

Everything we invest our time, energy, and resources into is driven by the value we expect to receive on the back end of said investments. And like the age-old adage of “price is what you pay, value is what you get,” just means that we value what we think is valuable. Therefore, since common sense tells us that music, just like fashion, will always function as a medium for amplifying the sensibilities and visibility of the cultures they come from, means that when we embrace a style of music, what we’re really embracing are certain cultural tenants that undergird that music.

With that said, the direction that I want to take this post has to do with the idea of the unsung heroes that have contributed mightily to the health of certain cultural activities, because when you look at the history of various art forms, and the artists that have received high praise from their culture for serving as an exemplary model for that culture, it’s important to also give credit to the lesser-known benefactors that have played critical roles within the sustainment of the cultural ecosystems that produce the art that we consume. And personally, I’d rather see these people and institutions recognized well within their lifetime. So I want to start by highlighting three important benefactors within the greater Portland, OR area that have served as important linchpins within the various efforts that have been made since the start of the 2020 shutdown to preserve the cache of Jazz music here. Which, as we know, was undoubtedly the most challenging year that the world has seen within any of our lifetimes.

The first person I want to highlight is Kent Lewis, owner of Tavern on Kruse in Lake Oswego, OR. And like the other two names that I’ll highlight, he understands the value of cultural support, because when you improve the standards of culture, behavior is soon to follow. And as such, the entrepreneurial spirit that permeates the life that he has built with his equally talented wife Joelle, is continuously inspiring him to intentionally look for new ways of supporting great cultural initiatives wherever they are. Which of course was made evident two months into the initial shutdown when he found a clever way to lean into the artistic culture that he subscribes to as a way to help stabilize his business amidst all of the economic uncertainty that surrounded him. After all, if culture is what built his business, it would be culture that he’d have to lean into to keep it afloat. And sure enough, his bet paid off. By hosting Jazz seven days a week, he found himself having quickly cornered the market on live Jazz in less than two weeks, due to the serendipitous nature of the physical layout of his business. And with the world craving connection, he was able to scratch that itch and ride that wave better than probably anyone else in the entire state of Oregon.

Second on this list is Amalfi’s in N.E. Portland. Amalfi’s is a legacy restaurant in the sense that it has been serving the area that it resides since 1959, which coincidentally is considered one of the most important years within the history of Jazz, as several seminal recordings between Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Ornette Coleman came out that year—one of which was Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” which is still the highest purchased Jazz recording of all times. Owner Kiauna Floyd is someone who also cares deeply about the power of culture, and what good can come of it when you harness it for all of the right reasons. And as such, she too recognized that she was in a unique position to capitalize on the tremendous amount of space that she had to provide culture with high quality live Jazz three days a week, which in turn allowed her to virtually corner the market on live music here on the East side of Portland. Also, given the great marketing work that her husband Rashad does within the world of professional sports, it has helped this dynamic duo to further solidify their reputations as well-known and highly respected people who so desperately want to help push the culture of Portland forward with a new and improved narrative.

And last but not least, The 1905 responded by hosting livestreamed events out of their space. And while the owner Aaron Barnes recognized that his space could not meet the safety requirements needed to continue hosting live Jazz shows, while still making the revenue needed to keep his doors open, he was quick to respond by setting up virtual performances instead, which has allowed him to expand his brand awareness globally while simultaneously reducing his entertainment costs, which really came in handy throughout the winter months when it was too cold for anyone to perform outside. And as such, his live streamed events were able to fill the cultural entertainment gap until the weather could finally break. And now as we move closer to summer, he’s able to satisfy both an in-person audience while simultaneously offering a livestreamed option for people to partake in, no matter where they are in the world. Also, it’s worth noting that as of October 2018, his venue sits on the list of the top 100 venues world-wide to hear live Jazz via the famed Downbeat Magazine.

Suggested Takeways…

a) The invisible hand of the market that shapes the world we live in is driven by the way businesses react to the ebbing and flowing of culture. And if you don’t lean into culture to know how to communicate with it, then you’re going to find yourself always reacting clumsily when market shifts occur, as opposed to already having the insight needed to get in front of those shifts when they happen.

b) Music preferences are one of the most reliable indicators for how and when cultural shifts will happen.

c) The world of music owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to all of the lesser known individual and organizational benefactors that have never received their rightful due. And as such, they should be exalted whenever possible.  

Using music to re-contextualize reading and comprehension.

A common troupe that we’ve all heard is that people (especially millennials) have lost the skill to communicate effectively, now that we’re firmly entrenched into the tech dominated landscape of the 21st century. However, people such as a Gary Vee will tell you that people are actually communicating more than ever before. It just doesn’t look like it used to in the past. Well, I’m also compelled now to push back on the notion that people tend to read less after they leave the compulsory learning environment of school as well. I think they’re reading just as much if not more so after they leave school. The difference, however, is the substance of what they’re reading. And to go one step further, an even more compelling argument may be to say that the rate at which people read is of lesser concern than their ability to comprehend and contextualize the importance of what they’re reading.

As a music educator, one of the hardest things to do is to get young students to REALLY listen to a song before sitting down to read it. Their assumption is that if they’ve given a song a few cursory passes, that should be sufficient, as the sheet music “should” fill in the rest of their blind spots. But that assumes that any sheet of music could ever adequately articulate everything that needs to be indicated, and in a way that NO ONE could ever misunderstand. But the reality is that if someone were to adequately write out a chart that could compensate for a musician who has chosen not to listen to how it goes, it would be the most cluttered thing you’d never want to look at, as oftentimes it’s counterproductive to attempt to notate certain things with standard notation—case in point, think about how insufficient it will always be to fully articulate a feeling into a text or email message without it being misinterpreted on some level. Therefore, without an aural component to fully counterbalance written content, it can create something as small as a one-degree misfire that can exponentially grow out of proportion before you know it. So the fact of the matter is that reading is actually a form of “hearing.” Meaning that when you’re reading, you’re hearing the words being said in your head, because if you were to read a foreign language that you had no experience with, you’d just be starring at a bunch of squiggly lines that mean nothing to you. That said, it’s also important to remember that the “faintest ink is more powerful than the strongest memory.” Meaning that the value of writing things down is so it can reduce our cognitive load for keeping the main things “the main things.”

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Words don’t write themselves. People write them. Therefore, a book is a substitute for a conversation with the author. *Hint: Reading is actually “hearing” without the sound. So listen to the people whose writing you consume, and as often as you can, as it’ll increase the speed and absorption rate of your reading.

b) Don’t be so quick to claim ownership of your comprehension of a subject until it has been balanced extensively enough through at least two of your senses (i.e. eyes and ears).  

c) Listening requires patience. So if you’re an impatient person, your mind might not sit still long enough to absorb the most pertinent parts of a story or music. Which, depending on what you’re doing, could present a set of liabilities that may be hard to bounce back from.

The Power of Death

When talking about life balances, I always bring up the point that no one ever runs a marathon without knowing how long it is first, as when you know the distance and the date of the race, the process of reverse engineering becomes much easier. That said, when people are given news about how much time they have left to live, what we tend to see is a brief moment of depression followed by an intense desire to finish their race with an elevated sense of purpose. And so it’s within this space of intentional living that we most often notice the power of death on full display.

As we know, the lives we lead are reflective of all our past decisions (good, bad, and indifferent). And when it comes to decision types, the only two that exist are made in the name of one-off experiences (instant gratification) and habits needed to support an outcome, like finishing a marathon (delayed gratification). Well, when I look at successful people who live life on purpose, one of the things they all have in common is a healthy respect for death, as just like running a marathon, it gives them the ultimate context for decision making.

The funny thing about death is that while we know it’s certain, we still react to it when someone dies as if we never saw it coming EVER. Death isn’t an issue of “if,” it’s an issue of “when.” And given that we see it fit to steward the attention of our youth towards a focus on getting the right grades for the eventual right job, one would think that a serious conversation about their eventual death would also be introduced at some point. After all, isn’t balance predicated upon establishing two end points? Where you are and where you want to be? Or in this case, where you’re going to be? But every time someone passes away, so many people are continually caught with their pants down, paralyzed by both the shock of the loss and the logistical process that’s to follow in reconciling the legal affairs of the dearly departed. But just imagine the world we’d get to live in if we prepped our youth with a preliminary understanding and respect for the end-game. Just imagine how it might affect the mental filter by which they make important life decisions through. After all, if you already understand the process of the end game, and have an idea as to how you want it to play out, I can’t imagine that you’d do anything to potentially compromise that vision you’ve created for yourself. And since you can’t value what you don’t understand, it’s hard for me to imagine that a discounting of the value of time can still yield an elevated sense of self worth. Meaning, if we don’t see the value in searching for our own intrinsic worth, then I can’t imagine that we’d bother to accord the same benefit to anyone else.

So again, the value of rearticulating death in this way is that it can create a beautiful watershed moment where all of our priorities in life are suddenly made clear, as we’re never closer to life than when we’re on the precipice of death. And when we learn to see the power of death in this way, it becomes easier to see the value of applying it to all of the micro aspects of our lives, such as seeking to embrace the continual death of old ideas that no longer serve us.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) The power of death is reflected in our ability to gain instant clarity for how we want the narrative of our lives to read leading up to our own passing.      

b) The life we lead is reflective of all the good, bad, and indifferent decisions we’ve ever made. And since the suffix -cide means “to kill”— which gives clarity to words like suicide, homicide, pesticide, and insecticide—the word decide means “to kill an opposing idea.” Therefore, good decisions are the ones that are in supportive alignment with how we want the end to play out.  

c) The degree to which we’re able to appreciate life is to the degree that we can respect and appreciate the serendipities of death.

Passion & Purpose: What are they and why do they matter?

I’ve always been interested in the contrasting lifestyles that people lead. And wondering what objective conclusions can be made about those that get to live the lives they live, versus those who feel they have to live the lives they live, has been one of my greatest curiosities. But now that I’ve read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear, it has become clear to me that the answer lies in knowing the difference between passion and purpose.

  If you objectively think about what our purpose is here on earth, we can conclude that it is to simply perpetuate the continued existence of our species. After all, every plan we make for tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year, is because we expect to still exist at all of those future points in time. And since our collective existence is a team sport in which we’re all on the same team, means that our purpose is to help other people survive and hopefully thrive. Which, by the way, if we focus on thriving as opposed to simply surviving, the former will automatically address the latter (but more on that in a future post). As for passion, it is an energetic feeling that we apply to any activity that we feel can give us the fuel and focus needed to go the distance towards fulfilling our earthly purpose.

  When you think about why certain people can’t lose weight, it’s not because it’s impossible for them to do so. It’s because they’re not emotionally up to the task, seeing as how the calculous is very simple: move more, eat less. This isn’t a moral issue, it’s a physics issue. Therefore, when it comes to those who are confused as to if they should be following their passion(s) or their purpose (let alone knowing the difference between the two), it’s because they have yet to figure out if they’re emotionally up to the task of learning how to passionately embrace the kinds of activities (even if it’s not their original passion) for helping them to fulfill their purpose of helping others as stated above. And this my friends is where the rubber really meets the road.

Logic says to pick a target, reverse engineer a process for hitting said target within a specified amount of time, and then stick to a work habit for executing on that process. However, if your current passions don’t seem to fit anywhere within such a scheme after you’ve drawn it out, this is where the emotional reluctance occurs towards letting go of your beliefs about yourself. And the best analogy I can give is the feeling of doubt one might have towards their abilities to find another person who can make them feel as good as the last person they were with before that relationship dissolved. In other words, a person might have a hard time believing that it’s actually possible for anything else in this world to energetically satisfy them like the passion(s) they currently hold. But the irony of it all is that none of us came into this world with ANY of the passions we currently hold. Those passions were developed over time. So if we could do it once, we could do it again by learning to develop other passions that may be more appropriate towards this mechanical purpose we all share (i.e. showing others how to thrive in all areas of life). But it all starts with defining what we want that purpose/vision to look like, and in great detail (think the specificity of MLK’s Dream speech) if we’re to know that we’re actually hitting our target. And THAT’s the part that most of us fail to do! So in paraphrasing Robert Kiyosaki, you have to really dig into the “numbers” when you need to make an unemotional decision about matters that matter the most.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Leading a life by passion alone is like allowing yourself to be in a boat in the middle of the ocean without a sail, simply because you have a profound preference for the boat you currently have.

b) Passion(s) is for self, purpose is for everyone else.

c) Doing the math (i.e. the “numbers”) means being clear on exactly how you want the look and feel of your purpose to play out. From there, pick a date, plot a course, and become relentless about finding some aspect of the course you can become passionate about. *Hint: If your current passion(s) don’t fit easily into the picture, find as many aspects of the process where you can integrate your current passion(s) so that you won’t be so energetically reluctant to do the work.

Myths & Philosophies: The Birthing of a Constitution

When people say that they’re not rule followers, that’s not to be taken literally. What they’re really saying is that the only rules they see fit to adhere to are their own, as we’re all following a framework of some kind. That said, when two or more musical frameworks/philosophies are at odds with each other, friction on the bandstand becomes the most visible. Therefore, the only way to reach a sense of equilibrium is to balance enough perspectives against as many objective truths as possible.

Like the framing of our constitution, our sense of reality is representative of philosophies that were once distilled from a set of “tribal myths.” So until I can fully explore the myths and subsequent philosophies of another musician, I’m compelled to suspend my judgement of their capacity until I have this important information. In fact, a perfect illustration of this idea gone awry can be summed up by the 1984 decision by the Portland Trailblazers to draft Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan. The philosophy that all centers should be over a certain height was driven by the myth that if they are tall, it increases the chances that they’ll be able to make and block shots easier when closer to a basket, in addition to grabbing rebounds easier. In other words, the idea that the success of a team should hinge around the position of a center is the myth. But clearly this concept isn’t an exact science, as MJ would go on to dominate the sport from the position of a guard. So because their philosophical calculations didn’t allow them the flexibility to identify other useful key performance indicators (KPI) for MJ’s growth potential, the Trailblazers passed on one of the greatest basketball players ever in exchange for a guy who would be riddled with a number of injuries.

In bringing this back to music, my experiences over the years have taught me to be cautious of being overly certain about the growth potential of others, as there have been a few people that have really surprised me with what they’ve been able to bring to the table over time, which I could have never predicted if my philosophy on permanence was too ridged. And in each of those surprising instances, my decision to keep them close always came after I had gained more clarity behind the myths of their philosophies. Which in turn gave me an idea as to how open their mindset was to entertaining other philosophies. So to paraphrase a quote by the great saxophonist Kenny Garrett, “I don’t need someone who’s at my level. I just need someone who’s trying to go where I want to go. I can teach them the rest of what they need to know along the way.” And as we know, it’s not uncommon to hear of a student eventually surpassing the abilities of their teacher.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Our sense of reality will always be representative of philosophies that have been distilled from a series of “tribal myths” from somewhere. So without the knowledge of the “myths” of another, our ability to comprehend and communicate effectively will always fall short to some degree.

b) Everyone is a rule follower, even if it is one’s own rules that are being followed. However, unlike our nation’s constitution, our internal constitutions haven’t exactly undergone the same level of scrutiny by the minds of as many critical thinkers. Not to mention, our personal constitutions aren’t accessibly on display for all the world to understand us better either. So if we can’t imagine there not being a well-defined constitution to help guide the culture of all organizations, why not apply this idea to our personal lives?

c) To have an expanded view of all key performance indicators helps to hedge against any bias we may hold towards one’s growth potential if at first they don’t appear to comfortably fit the framework of our wisdom (i.e. Michael Jordan).

Communication: Seeds and Soil

Over the past two weeks I’ve been learning a lot about myself and the world around me. And one of the simple things I’ve been reminded of is how perspective shifts are re-interpretations of reality. Therefore, it’s important that we stay in pursuit of as many objectifiable truths as we can about how the universe works so that we can improve upon the way in which we engage with everything and everyone. So as always, the purpose of this blog post is to draw some compelling lines between the subject matter, music, and the human condition.

If you’re a farmer, there are a number of things and tests that have to be done to a plot of land before the process of planting seeds begins. And even after seeds have been planted there’s still a process of maintenance that must occur so as to ensure the healthy growth of the crops that are meant to be harvested. Which, as you can imagine, is no different than the process of preparing for a child and the subsequent raising of that child from inception to adulthood. So if we take this same farming concept to the way in which we engage in communicating with one another, what specifically might this look like?

When strangers meet for the first time, it’s almost like watching two prize fighters square off as they size each other up physically and intellectually through small talk. And perhaps that’s one of those constants that we might see throughout the animal kingdom where two animals have to establish if the other will be friendly or adversarial before they allow themselves to put their safety guard down. But regardless as to if I’m right or not about this, it still occurs to me that this process of evaluating each other can be a good analogy for how we evaluate plots of land for harvesting. Therefore, since all of the ways in which we communicate verbally and non-verbally are like seeds that we’re constantly spreading around, both intentionally and unintentionally, the question becomes whether or not we’re aware of what the quality is of the seeds we’re sowing. After all, to not know the substance of the seeds you’re planting in people would be like a band leader who allows someone to create and post a gig flier all over town for an upcoming show without proofing the flyer before it gets deployed. It could be fine, but they’ll never know for sure.

Now regarding the planting of seeds where you know what the substance of those seeds are, can allow you to stay in the driver’s seat of how you navigate the opportunities that will present themselves to you along your journey in life. That said, it’s also important to remember that just because you want to plant seeds somewhere, it doesn’t mean that you can if the soil isn’t conducive for you to do so. So just like in business, timing is important. So to be successful you’d want to start by surveying the substance of the soil to determine if what you intend to plant will be supported by that environment before you start determining the kinds of tools you’ll need to help prep the land for what you intend to grow. And again, there’s still a process of constant care that needs to be applied towards the final harvesting of your crops. But the better you prep on the front end, the easier it should be to maintain the integrity of your crops once they start to bloom.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) We are constantly broadcasting thoughts about ourselves and others in both verbal and non-verbal ways. So if a broadcast station has to be mindful of all the direct and indirect messaging that comes from their station, then it’s a good idea for us to be just as mindful of all the messages we’re broadcasting as well.

b) Before you begin the intentional practice of sowing good seeds into people, it’s helpful to know what the substance of their mind is, because to continue planting a certain type of seed in the field of someone’s mind that’s not ready for it can emotionally burn you out if you fail to survey the “land” before you begin.

c) Just like with construction, the more work you put in on the front end to prep a parcel of land, the faster the growth process will go. So to quote my man John C. Maxwell “you can either pay now and play later, or play now and pay later.” Either way, you have to pay. The difference, however, is that when you pay on the back end, you’ll always pay with interest.

Foundation: We are what we eat!

If you find yourself in a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake, your mission is to take cover under whatever set of surfaces are sturdy enough to help you weather said storm. So when you find yourself stuck in the middle of an economic, health, or social storm, your only recourse is to identify a set of reliable principles that can support your well-being until (and after) the ground settles. And I can’t think of a more intuitive path towards the embodiment of success principles than through the body, as this is where all knowledge begins. After all, just think about the developmental process of babies. All of their intellectual knowledge happens after they’ve learned to control their limbs and their mouths. So if you don’t value the insights that are to be gleaned from how the human body works, then I think you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to realize that you already have the tools to change your life. Meaning that if your future successes are predicated upon your daily habits, then there’s no better place to test the efficacy of this idea than to observe what can happen to your body when you change your physical and dietary habits. So here’s a quick story to explain what I mean.

When I was living back in New Brunswick, NJ. my best friend Owen had moved himself and his family 45 min away to Easton, PA. So since he was further away, I knew that I’d have to really make the most of my time with him whenever I made the trek out to his house. That said, I remember spending the night at his place one winter, where the following day we went outside in his back yard to toss his football around. And since he’s also my Sifu within Ving Tsun Kung Fu, I didn’t want to leave without some kind of gold-nugget takeaway that I could internalize to make the trip feel that much more worth it. And as soon as I had this thought, the answer appeared. Meaning, whenever I’d throw the ball to him, he’d catch it with little negative impact. But when he’d throw it to me, my fingers would sting because we were outside in the snow without gloves on. So the simple lesson I took from this interaction was that unlike myself, Owen was more comfortable putting himself in vulnerable positions to gain the insight needed to react to situations appropriately. Therefore, since how we do anything is roughly how we do everything, I thought to see where there might be a connection between this idea about vulnerability and music. And what I realized was that not only did my drum solo’s make little sense back then, but the way I spoke to people also wasn’t much different. So since my thinking was the problem, I thought to fix it by writing. I’d think of a question and then defend my answer through numerous rounds of editing until my argument was what I’d consider to be air-tight. Ironically enough, this process of having to clarify my thoughts like this improved my soloing without ever touching an instrument first. And to be more specific, it was because I suddenly became hypersensitive to the value of developing singular narratives as opposed to being all over the place.

Suggested Takeaway’s…

a) It’s tough to be an effective “human doing” before you can become an effective “human being.” And as such, nothing will ever be more foundational to our learning than physical experiences.

b) All building blocks to self-awareness start with the relationships we have with our bodies. So learn what the building blocks are for the body that support its basic functioning.

c) Above ALL else, our most important asset in life will always be the health of our bodies, because even if we fall on hard times, we’ll still have the strength, flexibility, and stamina to re-org so we can live to fight another day. But without these attributes, our capacity to be of service to our fellow man/woman will be greatly limited.

Pathways: How to find a sustainable narrative in life to follow.

If we look at life through a utilitarian lens, it’s safe to conclude that our collective purpose is to simply maintain the existence of our species. Which means that at the individual level we simply have to leverage our creative capacities to this end. Therefore, in my opinion, this train of thought is what all 18-22+ year old’s should embrace as the begin to draw out the blueprints for their future and how to best “show up” in that future.

As you can imagine, we humans think in terms of narratives. Meaning that our internal story-telling is always guiding us like a set of conveyor belts towards a destination of some sort (i.e. destiny). Therefore, we should want to stay critical of the stories we tell ourselves so that any calcified beliefs we hold aren’t inadvertently inhibiting our ability to take advantage of certain opportunities—especially if they turn out to be better suited for getting us to where we’re trying to go in life than our original plans.

In getting back to this 18-22+ year old demographic, the narrative that many of them are forced to entertain starts with a question that sounds like “what do you want to do for the rest of your life?” Which I think is too often heard as a call-to-action for finding a job that’s tolerable enough to preoccupy ones time with until they can ride off into the sunset of their retirement years. Now while this question at face value may sound innocuous, I believe that if the vision one gets from it doesn’t include a cause that’s bigger than themselves, then the ramifications of such a narrative can lead to the types of existential crises where if or when the honeymoon phase of a given job wears off, and a realization sets in that the commitment made towards said job was really to a bio-chemical feeling, then it’s easy to feel like a ship lost at sea without a compass when that feeling goes away. It’s like with music…yes it’s fun to play, but that aspect alone is not why I still play it. It’s the vision for how I want to use my musical acumen and social influence from it to help others, that compels me to stay up to 3-4am on most nights without complaint to practice, write music, self-educate on a variety of topics, and to devise strategies that I think have a possibility for affecting change in all of the ways that I imagine being able to do so at the local, state, regional, and potentially national level. So again, to accept this notion that our basic function as humans is to be of service to all the practical and meta ways that we define survival, is where we begin to expand the base of our energetic fuel tank, so as to hedge against physical and mental burnout (which I think is most people’s chief concern for the work they do). And lastly, once a person can identify at least one aspect of this survival issue that they’d like to assume responsibility for affecting, then they can get on with the process of identifying all of the fun and creative ways that they might like to design an enjoyable and interesting work experience that should rarely feel like they’d ever need a vacation from.

Suggested Takeaways…

a) Ladders of success are only as relevant as the walls they lean against. So identify a target (i.e. wall), a projected time frame to hit said target, and reverse engineer with any set of “vehicles” (i.e. jobs, tasks, businesses, investments, etc.) to get you where you’re trying to go.

b) While the narratives we entertain are always given to us by others, books, or the media, we still have autonomy over the level of scrutiny we choose to place those thoughts under. 

c) The physical purpose of life is to sustain itself. Therefore, if you can’t figure out how to find your purpose, it means you haven’t identified a problem yet that you feel compelled to solve for the benefit of anyone greater than yourself.

Stage Fright: The Art of Public Speaking

As most people know, public speaking is right up there with some of the greatest fears that people have. So as always, I want to offer a sense of clarity about this issue and its remedy through the lens of Jazz.  

Simply put, stage fright shows up when our point of view is in a position to be questioned, and we know it hasn’t been sufficiently battle-tested by enough disagreeable people.

Years ago, when a brilliant pianist named John Chin answered a question I had about the application of chord substitutions, the answer he gave me was simply “conviction and symmetry.” What he meant was that while conviction can command one’s attention, symmetry is what keeps it (i.e. clear lines of logic). So what I’m calling into focus here is a believability factor. And the first person that needs to be convinced is yourself! So when the “math” in your head makes sense, it becomes much easier to present your point of view with the confidence needed for an audience to let you lead them along the journey of wherever your thoughts take them. So when speaking in public, the trick is to only speak about what you actually believe in, as when you tell your truth, you don’t have to remember anything. But when you try to overcompensate by punching above your intellectual weight to gain more credibility in a room, it’s anyone’s guess (especially your own) as to if you’ll accidentally talk yourself into a corner that you can’t dig yourself out of without egg on your face. So if you still don’t believe me that public speaking ain’t that hard, then imagine if I offered you $100 to get in front of 1,000 people to simply recite your name? You’d do so with no hesitation because there’s nothing to memorize, as you’re not confused about how to properly pronounce your name.

Suggested takeaways…

a) Before presenting your ideas in front of large gatherings of people, stress test your assertions in smaller settings with people who are willing to challenge your POV. *Start with respectable people.

b) Anxiousness comes from uncertainty about the future. And since the first thing you have to contend with is simply the sound of your voice, it’ll be helpful to record it enough times so you can predict how it’ll sound if you haven’t done so already. Because if the sound coming out doesn’t match what you hear in your head, it’ll distract you from being present with your audience. And if an audience thinks you’re distracted, they’ll be too distracted by your distractions to focus on the merit of your content. Thus diluting the impact of your message.

c) Since much of the fear and anxiousness we experience in life comes from the stories we’ve allowed ourselves to entertain in our heads—which is usually related to our projection of other people’s opinion of us—a good way to quell that feeling before having to speak is to introduce yourself to as many people as possible so that when you do speak it feels like you’re talking to a group of people you’re already familiar with. Also, when you’ve met enough people before your talk, you’ll be able to better personalize certain parts of your talk so that it becomes more engaging than that of a memorized script.

Music & Sleep: What wind instruments can teach us about our sleep habits.

While sleep is crucial for the rejuvenation of our health each day, it’s obviously the quality of our rest that matters more than the length. So while the impractical notion of condensing 8 hours of sleep into 1 would be attractive for overachievers, there’s still a decent amount of wiggle room for us all to move the needle ever so slightly towards this end.

Depending upon who you are, you may not know that the sole purpose of a tuning slide on a brass instrument, or mouth piece on a wood wind instrument, is to simply get you within a range where you can comfortably blow your horn without having to overcompensate with your embouchure to keep a note in tune. However, the stronger your embouchure and air support is (think force of air against a door frame), the easier it’ll be to keep a note in tune, regardless of the number of mechanical defects a horn has. Case in point, when a friend of mine let me borrow his soprano sax years ago, I didn’t realize until I sat in on someone’s gig that the ENTIRE upper register of his horn was a ½ step flat! Luckily I figured it out quickly, and was able to adjust on the fly. But had I not had the strength of my embouchure to keep notes half way in tune, it would have turned out much worse.

Now as an advanced society, it’s clear that we’re always seeking ways to maximize our effectiveness without sacrificing sustainability. So just like a musician who has to toy around with figuring out where the sweet spot is between maximum sound and control of said sound, I also believe that we have to toy around with finding where the sweet spot is between the least number of hours we can afford to sleep without sacrificing our alertness throughout the day. Therefore, if the position of our tuning slides and mouth pieces are like the duration of our sleep, then our embouchure and air support would be analogous to the blood flow needed to function properly throughout the day. And having tested this theory on myself over the past 20 years, I have found that the results are still consistent, in that when I personally get 5 to 6 hours of sleep, coupled with my morning routine of:

1) Drink one bottle of water

2) Full body stretch (30 minutes)

3) 100 sit ups, 100 oblique crunches (both sides), 100 flutter kicks, 100 standing twists, 50 side leg raises (for lower back support), and 50 push ups.

I can still stay awake for the rest of the day, even if on a rare occasion it involves me getting as little as one hour of sleep over a 24+ hour stretch. That said, filling my nutritional gaps with supplements for the past 18 years has been critical to my ability to maintain this kind of pace. So again, while the amount of sleep you get just gets you within firing range for being functional on a given day, it’s ultimately a mixture of diet and exercise (blood flow) that will carry you through your day with the alertness you want.   

Suggested Takeaways…

a) It’s not the amount of sleep you get, it’s the quality of sleep you get. So after you’ve ruled out that your nutrition, exercise, and bed are on point, it’ll become much easier to draw a bullseye around the number of hours you can realistically afford to get by on for your body to repair itself.

b) The number of hours you sleep are to your mouth piece or tuning slide position, what adequate blood flow and nutrition is to your embouchure and air support.

c) To dial in your exercise, nutrition, sleep, and bed situation is truly a forward failing proposition. But the number of insights you’ll learn along the way about yourself and why your tendencies are what they are, will yield dividends for years to come.

The Rhythm of Life: Rhythmic sensitivity in music, life, and business.

When I was a student at Rutgers University in the early 2000’s, my drum instructor was the great Ralph Peterson Jr. And in one of our lessons he said to me that the art of playing perfectly in time had less to do with playing perfect quantized time, and more to do with being sensitive enough to catch when the tempo starts to slip and adjusting accordingly. And from that one simple statement, I was liberated from years of having felt handcuffed by the thought of what I’d have to do if and when I ever find myself in a situation where I suddenly couldn’t trust my internal alert system to keep me on the straight and narrow. So allow me to explain how I not only solved this problem for myself, but what the larger implications can be when we extrapolate this idea into the realm of life and leadership.

The act of being sensitive enough to catch shifts in anything has to do with our familiarity of the thing we’re observing. So when I started observing how my body and mind felt about the steadiness of my ideas when practicing them in two bpm increments, I learned to identify the subtle differentiating signs of what it feels like to play tempos that are really close together. So when I take the metronome away, all I’m doing is approximating my memory of what it feels like to play ideas at a given tempo. Therefore, like any relationship, there will always be an uneasy period of having to reestablish rapport with your internal alert system (for tempo stability) when your relationship to a metronome has become estranged.

Now the life lesson here has to do with the value of consistency and measurement of progress. As they say, “winners are trackers.” For example, a friend of mine told me that his dad circumvented a major heart attack not too long ago when he admitted himself into the hospital after noticing that his body felt different on a run that he normally does. And because his routines in life were pretty consistent, he deduced that what he felt was worth investigating. And to his surprise it certainly was! For had he not done so, my buddy might be without a father today. And as for a leadership perspective, the question becomes “how familiar are you with the routines of your organization?” Are their tasks all over the place, or are they pretty streamlined to where everyone is basically handling tasks that are in line with their job/task description and strength zone? After all, the hallmark of any good leader is one where they’re able to feel the micro shifts in efficiency and morale before the people in their charge, so as to adjust accordingly.  

Suggested Takeaways…

a) When practicing with a metronome, focus on assessing your ability to detect micro shifts in your rhythmic timing as opposed to proving that you can play an idea in time. Now granted, this might sound like double talk, but the benefits of shifting your focus like this is WAY more useful.

b) The value of being sensitive to anything is that it allows you to predict how a butterfly effect might play out before anyone else.

c) Everything we do communicates something about us. And the majority of what we use to filter the messages that come our way are related to rhythmic timing (i.e. investing, cooking/baking, sex, speech patterns, crawling/walking/running, submission of deadlines, etc.)

Music and fitness: What distance running can teach us about success.

To be successful at anything you need to have rhythms and routines in place so you can capitalize upon the compounding effect of consistency. And if you’ve never read “The Compound Effect” by Darren Hardy, I’d highly recommend that you do so, as he does a great job of unpacking how we can all benefit from this natural phenomenon. That said, one of the routines that I’ve instituted in my life is to run every Tues, Thurs, and Saturday. Now historically speaking, I’ve never liked distance running because of the boredom factor. I’ve always been a quick burst of energy kind of guy, which is why I like tennis, basketball, football, martial arts, and weightlifting. However, it was a subtle shift in my mindset about distance running that gave me the additional insight I now have about music and success that I’d like to share with you.

Running is as much a mental exercise as it is physical. And being a retired military vet, I know how your mind can break much sooner than your body will. So a strategy I’ve come up with is that if I calibrate my physical output on a scale of 1-10, then I never run faster than 5. Why? It’s because the closer I get to 10, the more my body kicks into survival mode, which causes it to look for a way out (i.e. to stop or slow down). Not to mention, it opens a possibility of injury which will certainly sideline my progress. So if my mind is the gateway to the quality of my performance, then I have to find a way to regulate my emotions. Therefore, by running consistently throughout the week (coupled with an effective diet), then the sensation of 5 the following week would be equivalent to perhaps 5.5 or 6 from the prior week. So as you can see, the goal is to increase the capacity of my output without realizing it or overextending myself physically and mentally.

If you were to ask me how it feels to play music on a high level, I’d say it feels like flying with little to no extraneous energy to do so. And if you ask a runner what it feels like when they’re experiencing “runner’s high,” they’ll probably tell you the same thing. But it only feels that way once you find a groove. Thus, when you run for the sensation of 5, this allows you to maintain the most sustainable max-speed to energy conservation ratio while thinking clearly. But here's where the rubber meets the road (pun intended). Unless you’re a professional athlete who gets paid to run competitively, you don’t need an arbitrary benchmark like time, as the goal of running is for longevity of health, not a non-existent ribbon. But if you can take your ego out of your exercising by not judging the time it takes you to run your route, then your awareness of time can be thought of as a useful peripheral indicator of your progress. But again, time has to be an after-thought, not the main attraction. So when I practice my instruments, my goal is to do so with the least amount of energy possible while still maximizing my speed and agility. So when I’m consistent with my practicing, and am relaxed enough to tell when I’m compromising the integrity of my technique, I’m able to self-correct on the fly. Which I can’t do if my thinking isn’t clear (which tension in the body will always cloud).

Lastly, the linchpin that connects everything I’ve mentioned is breath, as a lack of it always creates tension in the body, which in turn affects the clarity of the mind. So for me, the true value of running is that it strengthens the capacity of my breath control. Which is why I believe that if you reflect on the weight of every major decision you’ve ever made, good or bad, it’s arguable that the quality of your breathing was always a supporting cast member throughout those decisions.    

Mercedes Benz

When I was a teenager, one of my favorite class of vehicles had been the SL-class of Mercedes Benz, as several of my classmates from high school had parents who owned them. And while I knew very little about cars, and how to differentiate the relative value of one from another, I always had a sense that there was something special about a Mercedes that made it stand out from the rest. And just like playing within a Jazz ensemble when the musical and technical competencies of each member is firing on all cylinders, I always assumed that to get behind the wheel of a Mercedes would give me that same exhilarating sensation of flying that always attracted me to the best kind of Jazz music.

     As an adult I’m obviously now aware of the full fleet of vehicles that Mercedes makes. And the more I learn about their history, and how they articulate the value of their design processes, the more excited I get, as I see so many uncanny resemblances between it and my beliefs about my own developmental processes behind performance and composition. For one, both Mercedes and Jazz are trailblazers within their respective field, as while the first vehicle created was by Karl Benz, the first form of popular music throughout the world after the turn of the 20th century was Jazz. Also, like Jazz, Mercedes is a luxury brand that remains relatable to people throughout the entire social stratosphere. Also, they both possess a sense of uncompromising integrity that’s related to the excellence of the past, while maintaining a strong interest in pushing the limits for what excellence can look like in the future. However, if I had to sum up Mercedes in the fewest words possible, they would be that they’re the kind of adult that we all aspire to, in that it marries a certain type of well-seasoned maturity with the youthful exuberance of a young professional who’s eager to make their mark in the world. And what more encouragement could we want about our collective future than that.

Culture

According to John C. Maxwell there are three tenants that all cultures hinge upon: behavior, symbols, and systems. So allow me to quickly walk you through my thoughts on the notion of culture before sharing my thoughts on how our country’s culture has shaped our music’s past and present.

I believe mankind’s first successful enterprise was the creation and maintenance of the nuclear family. And what allowed this to flourish was the innate understanding that “teamwork makes the dream work,” as no organization or culture can exist if its members aren’t unified in their vision for the future. But before we can even broach the subject of unification, we need to start by fostering a safe enough environment (whether personally or economically) for people to even operate in. After all, when our sense of security feels compromised, our fight, flight, or freeze responses will cause us to either withdraw our sense of connectedness to others or make our connectedness more adversarial. And since systems breed symptoms, let’s look at the makeup of the system that permeates the culture of the music industry to gain insight into why the symbols and subsequent behavioral patterns musicians tend to exhibit are what they are.          

As a fan of the literature of author and businessman Robert Kiyosaki, he brilliantly explains how money is only made in four different ways. So let’s take a look at what symptoms might be produced from these four cash-flow systems.

Employee

This is a fixed income earning system that contractually binds the number of hours you work to a specific pay rate. In short, you work more, you make more. You work less, you make less. Also, because most employees aren’t given equity in the businesses that pay them, their continued employment will always be at the sole discretion of their employer.

Small Business Owner

This system causes you to trade more time for the money you make because depending upon what the demands are for your product or service, as well as overhead, you’ll quite possibly lack both the man power and working capital to operate your business to where you’d have surpluses of free capital and time on your hands within the first 5 years if you last that long. And even then, lots of businesses only break even at the 5-year mark. This system, just like the prior one, is akin to what could be construed as a bucket-carrying income earning system, which is to say that you can only really make what you have the physical stamina to earn. And even if you can generate enough sales to either hire a few employees or subcontractors along the way, there will always be a ceiling that you won’t scale past without graduating onto big business ownership.

Big Business Ownership

Kiyosaki defines this in the traditional sense as someone who owns a company that can afford to hire roughly 500 or more employees and is operating well north of several million dollars in sales. Now obviously we live in a different dispensation of time from when this criterion could be considered a universal standard (i.e. 500+ employees). But for illustrative purposes, lets just stick with this number. What this means is that the owner has learned how to multiply their production efforts over enough people to meet market demands, and in a way that’s designed to prevent employee burnout. And because the owner wouldn’t have to be involved with the minutia of day to day operations, it affords the owner more control over their time and profit potential.

Investor

This is where your money compounds. Simply put, your money is making you money. But to make the types of quick gains that the big boys and girls make, I’ve heard it said that you’re going to want to have at least $500k to play with, and in a less than conservative manner.

Now that we’ve covered the landscape (system) that undergirds all industrialized civilizations, let’s use this framework to enhance our view of the symptomatic behaviors and decision making patterns of musicians, both past and present, so we can get a feel for what’s to come, as it’s very much true that while history doesn’t repeat itself, it always rhymes.  

I like to say that if you’re not fighting for financial independence, you’re settling for financial dependency, as no other option exists. So what independence implies is ownership and agency to entertain more options than obligations. However, due to most musicians having never really been schooled in the area of wealth creation, most of us have only known what life is like as an employee or independent contractor (small business owner). And as such, our inability to scale our income independent of our physical activity has left many with a scarcity mindset that makes us very protective of the opportunities that we’ve garnered for ourselves.

Sideman (employee)

This is where you’re receiving a salary as a result of being on a retainer. Usually you’re on one of these because you’re working for an artist that has a large enough “machine” behind them that affords them the ability to keep you on their books. However, just like most jobs, your time is more obligated than it is flexible, and your earning potential is more fixed than it is flexible. And let’s not forget that you’re always replaceable, as there are thousands of other people who would vie for your spot and are more than capable of performing at your level and above if the opportunity was presented.

Bandleader (small business owner)

While this garners you more attention, it also garners you more responsibility, as you are your own “machine.” This is where no matter what happens on your watch, you’re ultimately responsible for having to respond to everything related to your band, such as payroll, booking gigs, marketing, possibly composing and charting music for your band, networking, and all other manner of managerial duties. The upside is that you work when you want to and have more flexibility with your earning potential. Also, you have a brand that you get to leverage to create more opportunities for yourself. So you at least get to have a little more control over how you steer the direction of your ship.

Bandleader (big business owner)

Very few musicians ever attain this status because they lack ownership over the means of mass production and distribution, as one artist can’t mass produce a performance in any other fashion than to make a recording that can be duplicated. And if you don’t own the rights to your own duplication and distributive processes, then you can’t ascend past the ranks of small business ownership. But for the ones that have, you’ll notice that they also own their own record labels and distributive channels, in addition to having branched out into other lifestyle-oriented lanes like clothing, food and beverage, tech, etc., such as Jay Z, P Diddy, Dr. Dre, etc.

Investor

There are several high-profile performers who have branched out into this area to have amassed a sizable fortune for themselves, such as Jay Z, Diddy, Nas, 50 Cent, Jessica Simpson, and Bono to name a few.               

So as you can see, with most musicians having only been taught how to trade their hours for a paycheck, it shouldn’t be surprising that we tend to live with chronic bouts of anxiety due to the constant uncertainty about our financial futures. Especially when the occasional and inevitable setbacks occur. And whereas some musicians will go on the offensive by displaying monopolistic strategies when opportunities come their way, others may secede to a space of apathy for even trying to improve their lot in life if they believe it’s not in the cards for them to win in life. And when we’re relegated to having to contend with loving what we do, while not loving the life it’s providing us, many have been known to numb-out with vices that steal their attention from having to look at their dilemma. Also, because you’re only as good as your last gig, there’s also a tendency for people to turn to certain drugs as performance enhancers to help maintain their competitive edge. So if people do what people see, then we need to be mindful of the examples that we’re following. And it all starts with becoming intentional with the company we keep, and learning what we can from those that have already accomplished what we’re trying to accomplish, as they can give us the cliff notes to expedite our learning curve. Success always leaves clues, but we have to be able to see them. And how we learn to identify the symbols of success is by allowing ourselves to be conditioned by the types of successful people that are willing to resource us with the organizational and strategic systems that they use for their own success.

I sincerely hope this gives some clarity to those of you that may be at an impasse in your music career, and are uncertain as to how to adequately interpret the landscape that’s under all of our feet, so as to make the best informed decisions you can about your future.  

If Jazz Was a Person...

This is a question that I’ve thought about for quite some time, and am now deciding to share my thoughts on it. But since this question really encapsulates two other questions, I’ll present them as such, which is to say “What is the visual essence of the quintessential Jazz musician” and “What does such a musician stand for?” And since the manner in which a person presents themselves is simply a reflection of an inward disposition, I’ll start with the latter.

The culture of the Jazz musician is one that’s largely built upon maintaining a certain level of reverence for not only the musical developments of its earlier practitioners--which mostly refers to the inception of Jazz on up through the 1970’s, and a little bit from the 80's--but also an interest in maintaining the cultural practice of the oral tradition in regards to how the knowledge of these musical developments are passed on from one generation to the next. And since Jazz music is a life-long pursuit, there’s rarely a desire among the Jazz elite to ever gloss over any historical data, as they realize that the road to mastery within this music is more akin to an Olympic marathon than it is to an all-out sprint (think the shelf life of most pop acts). So since we tend to take our time within the process of wading through 110+ years of recorded and published material on the subject of Jazz music, it’s sort of no wonder why our style of speech and dress (to a lesser degree these days) tends to mimic the musicians that we've invested so much of our time trying to emulate. However, with the 1990's having been perhaps the last era where the typical Jazz musician could have a shot at supporting themselves, we now find ourselves in a situation where many are having to do some serious soul searching as they reassess the manner in which they see fit to present both the sound of their music and the ways in which they brand themselves. And so it's only natural that questions regarding authenticity will surface, so as to mitigate any possibility that one might be perceived as “selling out”—which really just refers to the smell test (i.e. if it don’t smell like Jazz, then it isn't). The reason why this might be an issue for many is because we've all been taught to embrace a familial sense of connected-ness to our musical elders. And so the concern here would be the idea that certain stylistic decisions may potentially cause us to fall out of our elders’ good graces--which, for some, may be akin to their parents losing respect for them. So the acceptance of anything that might look or sound like it’s even a tad bit congruent with the ever changing trends within the world of pop culture is one that tends to make many musicians wary in regards to them embracing such strategies. However, for the ones who have a good sense of themselves, they tend to have less of a problem with grappling with these issues, and thus are able to see where there’s both a viable artistic lane and financially profitable path for them to explore. But for the rest (which probably represents the majority), they tend to grapple with notions of self-identity within this market economy. So in regards to how all of this is reflected within how we look is of course somewhat subjective, as there’s still the factor of where you currently live, or perhaps grew up, that also plays a role in how one chooses to present themselves. But generally speaking, my observations have been pretty consistent among all the places that I've either lived or have visited throughout the world over the past 19 years, which I'll share with you now. 

From what I've seen, the culture of Jazz is rather quite in that it seeks to make the point that it doesn't need any flashy gimmicks for it to be relevant, or seem important. And in fact, it prefers to use its distance from any of the gimmick related devices that are typically employed by pop culture as a litmus test for how well constructed its music and performance of said music actually is. And since no one becomes a Jazz musician for the prospect of wealth, means that there can sometimes be an air of “this is me…take it or leave it.” So this raw, and sometimes jaded persona of the struggling artist, can be seen in how they dress. Typically speaking, in the larger metropolitan areas, where there are more obvious opportunities for economic advancement, you’ll tend to see more musicians make the attempt to emulate the fashion of those who are considered captains within their industry, as they possess the funds to hire those musicians who look something like themselves. So when you compare the fashion sensibilities of a CEO in a major city like NYC or LA, as opposed to a much smaller city somewhere in the U.S., you’ll see what I'm talking about in regards to the similarities between the look of these two business owner archetypes and the musicians that they have the potential to hire. In fact, a perfect summarizing quote for this point can be found in the movie “Remember the Titans,” when one of the football players says one of the most memorable quotes throughout the whole movie, which is that “Attitude reflects leadership.” However (as a general rule of thumb), given that Jazz musicians don’t gravitate too much towards ideas of total conformity, means that we’ll always look for ways of improvising with what we have on so as to reveal our true identity. And for musicians who have really found their own voice, they tend to have also found their own set of convictions in life as well, as once again, one’s outward appearance or disposition is generally a reflection of their inward conditioning. Therefore, the better the musician, the more successful they’ll tend to be in knowing how to play within the framework of what they’re wearing so as to be respectful of the general vibe of the look that they’re going for (especially while dressed up), but with a little something extra that’s reflective of their true nature.