Parental Approval

Of course your parents are your biggest fans.

If you could spend eighteen years with each potential fan, then they too would love everything you do and buy everything you make.

But you can’t. So you have to learn to shorten the eighteen years.


Ok so let’s bring this idea up to speed a bit.

Think about your last show. What is it that the people in the front row understand about you in an extra special way? And how did they come to that understanding?

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

Who Wrote The Book Of Love

At the end of each year in middle school choir there were regional competitions. Soloists and ensembles.

I chose to be in an ensemble. A group of four.

The previous year I had seen a group do a doo-wop version of Who Wrote The Book Of Love and the audience really seemed liked that one the best. But it didn’t win. Which was confusing. I  thought the ensemble must have done something wrong with it but that if my group did it we would get it right and definitely win.

So we rehearsed it up. I had the melody on the second verse. We were prepared. We went on stage and easily had the loudest applause of the night. Everyone was smiling. Everyone loved it. Four 7th grade boys brought down the house.

But just like the group the year before us, we didn’t win. We finished middle of the pack.

We wanted to win the competition. So we rehearsed to impress the judges. But it turns out there were two categories called ‘technical marks’ and ‘level of difficulty points’ that a doo-wop song at a formal choral competition just was never going to score very high on.

I remember being so confused.

Now I get it.

But it’s that exact same confusion (and defeated-ness) that creeps in all these years later when I don’t keep my eyes open.

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

See The Problem?

When we say ‘my problems aren’t that bad, it could be worse’ in order to feel better about our situations, it requires comparison. That epiphany will always require someone to be worse off than us in order for us to feel better. We lean on others misfortune (not in a malicious way…it’s usually subconscious) to get ourselves to feel resolve for our own set of problems. We compare for the sake of an illusion of solace.

On the other hand, when we say ‘there is purpose and beauty in my problems’ it doesn’t require a search for comparison. It’s not a relative scale. It doesn’t require anyone to be doing worse than you. It’s an appreciation of your reality.

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

(Almost) The Exact Same Time

It’s hard to get everyone to watch at the exact same time.

But it’s funny how everyone watches at almost the same time.

And by everyone I mean the people around you, your world, your people.

We don’t want to be left out by the people we care about. So we all do the same stuff. Maybe not at the same time, but nearly the same time.

As much as we want to have our own unique schedule and interests, we want to have shared interest even more. It’s more fun to be able to talk about the episode or song or article.


Taking this idea into business. It’s not about trying to get everyone to stream, listen, buy at the same time…it’s about solidifying your place within a group to where people would feel left out by not streaming, listening, buying your thing. ie. Making it extremely expensive (socially, relationally, etc) to not be on board.

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

Walking On A Train

It’s the journey that transforms us.

Like Jakob Dylan sang “man I ain’t changed but I know I ain’t the same”

We wake up every morning and work and push and figure it out again and again. We read and we think and we argue with ourselves and with people we love. All in hopes of taking one more tiny step.

And then (usually after years and years) we realize while we were focused on taking one more tiny step, the train has taken us miles from where we were.

We have some dominion over our steps so by all means pay attention.

But know that all the while the train is doing its thing.

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

Banana Art

Make a piece of art.

vs.

Make a piece of art with this banana.

It’s the limitations that make the story that make the connection.

It’s why no one is impressed when their friend says ‘let me tell you about this crazy dream I had last night’. Because immediately there’s no limit or boundaries to the story.

It would be easy to say you want more freedom, less constraint.

It’s hard to set boundaries and limits and deliver within them.

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