THEY’RE Making It??!!

We bump into someone, hear how their career is going in the music biz, wish them well but know in our head that what they’re doing isn’t going to work.  They don’t have the right answers, they’re not pursuing the right things in the right ways, their plan is off, their attitude is off.  We just know.

And then we don’t hear from them in a couple years.

After those couple years you hear their name pop up at a show or a meeting or in a coffee shop, and their name is associated with a cool company, a sold-out tour, a #1 on the charts.

And you think, “…of all people, THEY’RE the ones making it??!!”

Yes. They are.

Why the surprise and disconnect?

Because most of us think we have it figured out (and by “it” I mean: the right plan, the right attitude, the right approach, the right look, the right speaking flow, etc), we think others who are not doing it similar to us don’t stand a chance or as much of a chance.

We think their way sucks and won’t work in large part because their way is so foreign to us…and we’re not familiar with the strengths of their way.

So when we hear they’re doing well it blows our minds because we thought they were employing a crappy, less-than way of doing things and now that crappy way has actually worked.

We’re floored, frustrated, jealous and confused.  How does their wrong approach seem to work and my (correct, perfect) way doesn’t??

Answer: Their approach isn’t wrong and yours isn’t perfect.

Answer: Their approach suited their strengths and yours can too.

Answer: The timing of others taking note of the strength of your approach is different for everyone.

If I need a tour booked I’m not calling you. You’re horrible with details. I’m calling the nerd you thought was a loser and would never make it.

If I need a front man for a New Years Eve gig I’m not calling you. You’re drab and unexcited. I’m calling the “too spontaneous” person you wrote off long ago because they couldn’t focus.

You get it.

What I’m saying is…

YOUR approach can work. YOU’RE RIGHT! 

The way you do things has distinct strengths built into it already.

When we start thinking this way it removes confusion and replaces it with appreciation for others and an attitude of learning for our own benefit.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

In Flight Safety Information

Nobody pays attention to all of the flight safety speech. 

But I dare say we all know exactly the things to do because over time we’ve heard different bits of it and it seeps into memory.  Little by little, we know what to do in an emergency.  We know the protocol.  We know the message.

We never totally pay attention but we always pay a little attention.

But the message is the same every single time.  That’s the key.  The consistency.

The consistency caused us to completely understand without completely knowing how it happened.

And that’s what you need.

You need a schpeel. A definition.  A message.

Something that remains so consistent, both in the spoken and maybe more importantly the unspoken, that people (over time) can’t help but pick up on it and understand.

It’s why Katy Perry works, or Bruce Springsteen.

Pull down on the red tab to inflate…

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

Media Guide 2016

Here’s some things I read and heard and wrote this year that are worth mentioning again, or for the first time…

Books:

The Art Of Learning- Josh Waitzkin- He’s the guy who the movie Finding Bobby Fischer was about.  World chess champion turned world Tai Chi champion…and the learning process of both…which everyone can learn from.

4 Hour Work Week- Tim Ferris- A staple in the modern “change your own life” genre. I avoided it for a long time, but now I understand why it got so popular. It’s currently changing some things for me.

How To Be An Adult- David Richo- Don’t make fun of me for this one until you read it.


Podcasts-

This episode (2) and this episode (148) …coincidently both of them are Tim Ferris interviewing Josh Waitzkin.  If you’re the type who loves the details, you’ll be into these.

Also, this episode (184)…Shep Gordon (Alice Cooper’s manager) talking about the good ol’ days of rock n roll. Who knows if it’s all true, but it’s all entertaining, and you’ll probably learn something.


And here’s a few of my posts from this year that seemed to have connected especially well, and might be worth reading and sharing…

More Money?

When You Walk On Stage

This Post Probably Isn’t The Post

How Badly Do You Want To Put On A Great Show

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Good Fuel (The Gift Is In The Song pt 2)

When you’re young you think you can outsmart truth and fulfillment.

You think you can side step what truly matters for the sake of what would be cool to have.

When you’re young (who am I kidding…even when you’re old) you think your legitimately strong drive for fame, notoriety, typical success, credit, respect, money, status will make up for the fact that you don’t really LOVE the work of writing and playing in and of itself. (Only you don’t tell anyone this and/or maybe you’re ashamed of it, because after all you gotta be “all about the music, man”)

You DO the writing of the songs and the playing of the songs, but that doesn’t serve as the fuel, the fame and money are serving as the fuel.

And that can keep you going…for a little while.

But fame and money are not sufficient sources of fuel. How many vh1 Behind The Music’s do you have to see??

So where is the good fuel?

What is the life sustaining source for pursuing a career in this wild west of a music business?

The good fuel is simply the opportunity to do the work.  The opportunity to do the work you have to do today…and then tomorrow its the opportunity to do that work, and so on…

It’s the most unglamorous, unsexy, unrockstar way of adapting your value system to the music business…and yet I dare say this is part of the golden ticket, the truth that you’ve been searching for.

What you DO today matters.  THAT’S IT.  THAT’S ALL YOU HAVE.  That’s the only vehicle you have to give and receive life and joy and hope and fulfillment through.

And tomorrow, no matter how much money, fame and notoriety you have or don’t have, this vehicle will always be reliable and will show back up for another whirl.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Gift Is The Song...And That’s It

As an artist, the gift that music brings you is what you experience when you write it and when you play it.

It owes you nothing else.

It doesn’t owe you a career.

(The funny thing is that once you truly understand and act on this you’re more likely to have a career in music)

The gift is being able to write the song, or to play the song.  

Don’t run past this gift so quickly in search of more.

p.s. If there isn’t joy, fulfillment and hope that regenerates within writing and playing the song (in and of itself, at the time you are participating in those activities), it might be that 2017 is the year you move on from writing and playing songs.

p.p.s. There’s a vast difference in hoping to experience hope, joy and fulfillment in writing the song or in playing the song vs. those things ACTUALLY occurring.  Many artists mistake their hope for fulfillment, etc as the actual thing…Which makes an artist constantly reach into the future (but never actualizing)  as opposed to realizing the value in/and experiencing in the present gift of music.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com

The Next Challenge

It’s always coming. It’s always coming tomorrow.

Because nothing happens the same way twice.  You learn some things along the way and that makes you better equipped to face the next challenge…but you can’t avoid it all together.  That is, the next challenge you’re going to face.

Every day is a come back.  Every day you have to re-learn how it goes.  

You can’t copy and paste. 

Experience doesn’t remove the challenges, it just changes your perspective and hopefully your efficiency in hurdling them.

The point is not to not have a challenge coming tomorrow. The point is developing an attitude and posture that doesn’t get defeated by knowing there’s another challenge.

In the land of dreamers, the planner is king.

BUT…in the land of planners, the one who recovers is king.

Plans are a great, necessary process, and we base them largely on what we know, the flow of how we believe things will, could, should go.  As we should.

But remember the reality is things will not go the way you plan. They never do. They either go better or worse.

And there in lies a large part of the challenge that renews virtually every day.

Enjoy your victory today. The next challenge is coming tomorrow.

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I’m always interested in your perspective, whether affirming or dissenting. Continue the conversation anytime: gabethebassplayer@gmail.com