The Genius Scientist Is Usually Wrong
A master, a genius, fails more than succeeds.
If anything a genius is one who is more OK with being wrong in the streets of discovery than the normal woman or man playing it safe on the sidewalk.
We often hesitate to write or create for fear of being exposed, to be wrong, to be stuck on dead end…
However, a scientist applauded for a great discovery is not criticized for the pervious failures and false starts that led up to epiphany or success; it’s an accepted part of the scientific journey.
As should it be for the artist, writer or musician. We will have more false starts than successes…the point is to continue working, searching, exploring.
Celebrate the failures as proof that we are still creating.
My Aunt Sophie’s advice: “Trust you will find someone who will love your dreams as much as you!”
One of the best pieces of advice I received was from my mom’s Aunt Sophie. Aunt Sophie told me how she met her husband, our Uncle Ralph, while he was playing upright bass at a jazz club in Detroit.
“Was it difficult being married a musician, Aunt Sophie?” I asked.
“Sure, it was hard when Ralph came home from work, and then had to rush to a gig and was gone till 2 AM. But what was easy was loving someone for their dream, which is a part of who they are!”
She always reminded me that I would find someone who loved me for my dream of music, and just hearing that reminder to be hopeful got me through some lonely times during my twenty-something years in a small town aways from my family.
Today’s my first wedding anniversary. I feel extremely lucky to have found Natalie, a person who has wonderful, creative dreams of her own!
I think of my Aunt Sophie’s advice on days like yesterday, days where I arrive home at 2 AM from a long gig in Lansing, where I come home to find my wife sleeping in bed with all the lights on and a book in her face, still waiting for me to get home. (And our dog Lois there, claiming my spot in bed!)
Her advice was simple and powerful: Trust you will find someone who will love your goals, for your goals make you, you!
PS: Have you heard my new love song, released today?
My surprise performance of Love Birds for Nat at our wedding!
The Detroit Zoo: Making a Good Business Decision
We often think a “good business decision” makes us money. But let’s revisit that word, good.
Making difficult decision for the right reasons, making a positive difference–that’s a good business decision.
Today, the Detroit Free Press posted an article about the Detroit Zoo‘s decision to phase out the selling of bottled water at concession stands–a decision that will cost the zoo $240,000 in annual sales–in an effort to decrease their contribution of plastic waste.
(+read more about the Detroit Zoo’s Greenprint initiatives)
It’s a bold move, and one that all of us should inspire to do: make a good business decision; not only profitable one.
I love this music video by Ann Arbor’s Abigail Stauffer:
One Youtube commenter named farmerchio pointed out, “This should have WAY more clicks.” While I agree with the commenter, worrying about clicks could miss the power already achieved. (I was changed by the video! I’m remembering I need to go to the farmer’s market.)
It’s not about the current number of views breaking 6000. It’s about how many Ann Arbor residents were compelled to visit the A2 Farmer’s Market because of Abigail’s video’s setting? How many choose to eat a healthy meal one day? I bet quite a few!
The number of people in my town inspired to eat healthier because they watched this video is more meaningful than how many “clicks” it got.
The last decade has been a chase for clicks. We clicked on that link; but did it change us?
I think it’s time for us to reframe our expectations of the power of the Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, the Internet in general. To stop counting clicks, and ask, “How is our art impacting others?”
It’s nice to go viral; but it might mean more to go local.
Yesterday, I did something my friends wouldn’t expect from me; I attended the Justin Timberlake/Jay Z concert in Detroit.
I won’t go into length about how my wife and her sister Brianna tricked Corey, my brother-in-law, and I into joining them–They were sneaky and bought four tickets–but I will admit that I had a nice time.
I will also admit that I haven’t attended a large, arena concert in years, and when I took my seat, I gazed in awe at the massive amount of people inside Ford Field, the gigantic stage housing towers of screens, the stacks of speakers…
The JT/Jay-Z stage at Ford Field
Concerts in stadiums are spectacular extravaganzas.
But what if you could attend a concert where you could actually see the notes played by the guitar player; where you didn’t have to pay the equivalent of your month’s grocery budget to attend; where you didn’t have to wait in traffic jams to park and leave; where you spend $8 to bring a six-pack, not one domestic beer?
Would you enjoy that more?
Yes, these things exist. They are call house concerts…
Yesterday many people enjoyed the celebration (with $8 beer prices to match), yet I wonder, how many of these people might equally enjoy attending a show at the legendary Ark. Or a fee-free show hosted by Fusion Shows. Or a house concert like Craig Carrick’s series.
And I sadly wondered how many of them will never know what they are missing?
If only there was someone to tell them about those types of shows, too.
