When
You Need Inspiration, There's Always Magic in Music
Being an entrepreneur means hitting rock bottom from time to
time. That's when I fall back on the Boss and other musicians to help me to
push through.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@TULLMAN
Credit: Getty Images
Dark days and lonely
nights are part of every entrepreneur's journey.
We've all been there and--as far as I can tell--these are inescapable,
inevitable, and actually essential waystations on the path to success.
But the trials and
tribulations alone are no guarantee that you'll get to where you think you're
headed. And you'll undoubtedly redefine what real "success"
actually looks like many times along the way. It's not simply
that success is a moving target; it's also that your own goals, expectations,
and desires will morph over time. Family, friends, feelings, failings, and
other concerns need to be factored into the calculations to bring the first
fantasies into final focus. As long as we're breathing, we're all works in
progress--unless you're a certain emotionally bereft narcissist who stopped
growing and progressing when he was 8 years old.
And what will become
clear as well is that without embracing, enduring, and overcoming the ups and
downs and the many bumps in that long and winding road, you'll never get to any
place worth going anyway. Even if you do reach the next plateau and take a
moment to reflect, you'll find that you won't yet have the thick skin, empathy,
patience, and resilience you need to build and lead a competitive and
sustainable business that's likely to last, to matter, and to make a
difference. A life well-lived is about legions, longevity, legends, and
legacies. Sean Rowe in his song "To Leave Something Behind" says: "When my son is a man, he will know what I meant. I
was just trying to leave something behind."
The keys to winning in
the long run are to keep going, to turn obstacles into opportunities, and--as
Dr. Phil-ish as it sounds--to be your own best friend and understand that
sometimes even the best of us needs to be reassured, cheered up, bucked up, and
reminded of why we've chosen this crazy life. As Jackson Browne wrote in
"Doctor My Eyes": "Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry?" There's
no better time than the super stressful present for a little dose of
encouragement, reassurance, and recollection.
In my own life, the
most powerful tool to recharge the batteries, replenish the emotional reserves,
and pick myself up off the floor for the umpteenth time--apart from my family
and a couple of critical companions on the journey--is music. Crazy loud music.
And, if there was a single lyric that saved me, it was the Boss, Bruce
Springsteen, singing: "no retreat, baby, no surrender" in "No
Surrender," in 1984.
This song was my
personal "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and whether I was
screaming out "we made a promise we swore we'd always remember" or
rallying my team of "blood brothers in the stormy night with a vow to
defend," there was a power and a magic to the words, to the emotions they
invoked. And also, to the idea of honoring longstanding and shiny new
commitments without regard to the costs that helped me through some of the
toughest times. The feelings that ripple though you in these moments are indescribable.
To this day, I can
honestly say that the only song that even comes close to "No
Surrender" for me is "Lose Yourself" by Eminem from the movie 8 Mile, which appeared in 2002. That song hits on every cylinder: The
absolute desperation to succeed and the fear of abject failure is all
so palpable. I even got permission from Eminem to use it in a video I produced
for Bono's RED charity a few years later.
This song is all about
the moment, the test, the shot (in Hamilton terms), and rising to
the challenge in spite of the fear. Eminem sings: "You own it, you better
never let it go. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to
blow." But the real message is perseverance, in spite of the pain:
"I've been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage. But I kept rhyming
and stepped right into the next cypher." And finally, a line that tails
off at the song's end about belief in yourself: "You can do anything you
set your mind to, man."
Every entrepreneur
who's willing to be honest can tell you about his or her talisman, touchstone,
recollection, song, scene, or mentor that helped them brave the storm and get
to the other side without giving up or giving in. This is one of those things
that we've all heard, but it always seemed to me that you've got to have been
there yourself to really understand. As Louis Armstrong said about jazz:
"if you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know."
Any good entrepreneur
will tell you that, in the end, running a business is never about the outcome,
win or lose; it's about the challenge, the people, the journey, and the
creative process that builds the lifelong power, memories, and meaning for the
members of the team. Trying to describe those special shared times--the juice
and the energy, those moments when the earth moved, when things finally came
together and jelled into a new reality--was always impossible. Much like the
power that certain anthemic music has over us.
Twenty years
after "No Surrender" was released on the album Born to Run, the world took a big step forward with the creation of
YouTube. Music videos had been around since MTV in the early '80s, but YouTube
was a different deal in many ways. Anything and everything within reason and
certain boundaries could be filmed and shared--not simply by professionals, but
basically by anyone.
And lo and behold, 15
years after YouTube began, I came across a singular video that in less than a
minute or two--frankly in a few heartbeats--captured everything important about
the joy of collaboration and the creative process in a way that every business
builder will recognize and grok in an instant. It's my new go-to piece, my
tonic for troubled times, and an absolute tearjerker as well.
It's a video of the
first-time rehearsal for the main theme song in the film The Greatest Showman, called "This is Me." It's an amazing performance by Keala Settle, of
course, but to me the key is to watch Hugh Jackman at a side table as he is
completely enraptured by the creative energy and the emotion in the room. You
see him just explode with a grunted "huh" that says it all.
I may be wrong, but
there's no committed entrepreneur in the world who wouldn't recognize that
moment. And having seen the movie version as well, I have to say that the
informal, sweaty, slice of life YouTube video is a lot more powerful and
emotionally raw.
In any case, the end
result is always the same for creators of any kind--the pain, camaraderie, and
joy of the magical moments in the process last longer and far outweigh the
emotions attached to the final result, win or lose.
NOV
10, 2020
The opinions expressed
here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
