As “School of Rock” taught us, music can teach us valuable lessons. Yet those lessons evolve beyond playing guitar at a prep school. For all the talk about “selling out”, rock n’ roll, at leas if you want people to listen to what you have to play, is a lot like a startup. I recently came across an article that compares the formation of successful businesses into making it “big” in the rock scene. Nearly every successful startup has three things in common with a successful rock artist: they’re dramatically different from everything else, thrive on collaboration and never stop learning.
Back in the 1970s, Wicked Lester was just one of many struggling glam rock bands around New York City, and a lack of success was threatening to break them up. But then they decided to come up with a new look, name and stage persona. Within two years, the band “Kiss” was headlining world tours. This wasn’t because Kiss was better, it was because they knew what they needed to do to stand out. And nothing helps you stand out like facepaint, elaborate leather costumes and platform heels. A lot of startups are afraid of alienating potential investors and customers, but indifference is a lot more harmful to startups than rejection.
When he was a little boy, David Crosby went to an outdoor symphony performance, where the perfect harmony of the various instruments left a huge impression on him. Later on in his career, Crosby created perfectly harmonized hits whether it was as part of the Byrds or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He never sought much recognition as a solo artist, but instead collaborated with various different musicians. This allowed him to add dimensions to his music that would ultimately not be there if he was working on his own. Collaboration is the secret sauce to making startups incredible, with different artists working together. Whether it’s creative or financial, collaboration allows all of those involved to create something greater than the sum of their parts.
A lot of those rock stars from the 60s and 70s who somehow survived all of the drugs they did have been content to sit on their laurels and stop trying to be on top. As their egos are outweighed by the fact that they haven’t done anything innovative since your parents were in high school, they quickly become caricatures of themselves. One band that didn’t let that happen was U2; when their sound got off track in the late 90s, Bono announced that the band was “reapplying” to be the “best band in the world”. When they released All That You Can’t Leave Behind, it was hailed as a masterpiece and won three Grammy awards; their reapplication was successful. Like Bono, entrepreneurs need to constantly be adapting to the world around them if they want to stay on top of their game. You can be on top of your game in the cassette business, but if you can’t change after the CD comes around, you’ll quickly be reduced to a footnote in tech history.
richardaquilone 