You can play sixty minutes but how much of it is good?
Your store is five hundred square feet but you only have three hundred square feet worth of great products to sell…but you gotta fill the other two so the store looks good.
Having three good examples is the norm but only two come to mind.
It’s hard to admit the current limitations and boundaries of our effectiveness.
It’s ok to want something.
It’s ok if your friend doesn’t get it.
It’s ok to have a vision that alienates some people.
Even people you respect.
It’s ok to ask those people you respect to simply trust you on this one.
It’s ok to not make everyone happy.
It’s ok to compromise.
It’s ok if things get awkward.
It’s ok to want something new.
I want to say another word about our free throw shooter from yesterday who has a practice of shooting ten free throws and hitting 70%. Miss three then make seven. It looks good on paper but you if you always miss your first three you’ll never make any in a game because you never get to shoot ten in a row.
So what about the other seven?
The other seven tell you that you’re close. The other seven show you what’s working, remind you of your capabilities and inform what you need to pull closer to the surface for when the next opportunity arises.
What is true about the other seven that isn’t yet true about the first three misses?
Bringing it over to the music world...
This happens a lot with live performance, ‘It took me six songs before I was into it’. If that was a stand alone fact then the remedy would simply be to play six songs in the dressing room beforehand so that once you hit the stage you’re all set.
But it’s not about going through the motions of playing the songs at all. The real question is…What has to be true for you to be and feel connected to an audience and care for them?
So although it really has nothing to do with the number of songs, we can use that metric to help. What is true about what happens at song six that isn’t true about song two or one? Song six shows you what is working and what is possible…it reminds you what you’re capable of and what you need to pull closer to the top of the setlist.
You walk into the gym, shoot ten free throws and make seven of them. 70% is pretty great.
But here’s the thing…you missed the first three and then made seven in a row.
And now the problem…in a game you never get to shoot more than three free throws in a row. You don’t get three warmup shots…so you’ll never make it to the next seven shots that you’re so good at making.
It would be much better to step up to the line and make three out of ten…but always have those three be the first three attempts.
Sometimes raw ability doesn’t equate to effectiveness. Effectiveness means bringing ability, timing and opportunity together.
This is the part you’re suppose to remember.
I Will Always Love You. Please Please Me. Walk This Way. My Girl.
Big hooks are the obvious ones. You don’t have to dig deep or pay close attention to figure it out.
But writing songs with big hooks is scary because there’s the whole song right there. The whole song is built around delivering that hook…so if the listener doesn’t like the big hook, it’s over.
On the flip side…
If you tell a fan of a weird indie artist that there aren’t any hooks in the music…the person will either explain that you’re wrong by highlighting the shaker rhythms in the second chorus…or they’ll take the ‘no hooks’ comment as a compliment.
They’re not in it for the big hooks. They’re in it for the layers. They’re in it BECAUSE they’re aren’t big catchy parts. That’s what makes it worthwhile to them.
Important to note…
Big hooks don’t equate to great hooks. So if you’re in the business of big hooks, you gotta dig deep.
And…
The value of a fan who loves your weird indie music is astronomical. They get it. They understand. They’re deeply connected. But this type of person is much more rare.
‘We made the best decision we could given the information we had at the time.’
And it might turn out you made the wrong decision or didn’t choose the best decision of the ones available…but see the opening line…all you had was what you had at the time.
So if ‘at the time’ is a constantly limiting the ability to make the perfect decision, the temptation would just be to delay, gather more intel so the pool of information is bigger at the time of the decision.
But life doesn’t work that way. There’s not enough time and the decisions are too important to keep delaying.