So, You Want to Be a Rock Star? (part 3)
by Draven Grey
In part one of this series, we explored the importance of and what it meant to have all the right people on the bus. In part two, we talked about a culture of brutal honesty, which is the beginning of having laser-like focus. In conlusion to this series on being a successful band, we will talk about the second part of having laser-like focus, a tiny creature called a hedgehog.
What does Sonic the Hedgehog have to do with a rock band?
Sadly, besides being a fun game, Sega’s cartoon videogame character, Sonic, doesn’t have anything to do with your band. Unless, ofcourse, you like to play the game during breaks. What I’m refering to is a famous essay by Sir Isaiah Berlin called, “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” Author Jim Collins brought this little gem to my attention. In his inspiring yet slightly difficult to read essay, Berlin divides people into two classes, hedgehogs and foxes, based upon an old saying by the Greek poet Archilochus: “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
Berlin goes on to say how one class of people have a single, unifying vision for everything that they do, say and think. Their lives are organized around a central vision from which “all that they are and say has significance.” The hedgehog reduces it’s entire day into a simple, exclusive and focused idea. No matter what the struggles, what complexities, challenges, or other tasks that the day holds, the hedgehog has one goal from which all other things are left out unless it helps it to achieve its goal.
Yet there is another group of people whose “thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels,” and are “self-contradictory and incomplete.” Every day brings it different results, as its actions are dictated by whatever life happens to give it for the day. It has no particular focus, no goal in mind other than survival, and is quick to give up on a “good idea.” This describes a fox. Unfocused, tossed about by the wind, and easily distracted.
The Fox and the Grapes
You may have heard the term “sour grapes.” This term came from a fable thought to be written by Aesop called, “The Fox and the Grapes.” In the story, there is a fox who gives up on trying to get some grapes that are hanging too high up for it to reach. It walks away saying, “The grapes are sour anyway!” Aesop uses this story to say that “It is easy to despise what you cannot get.”
For us, we can use Aesop’s fable to show us that not only is a fox unfocused and impatient, but also quick to give up and blame others. In this case, it blamed the grapes and called them sour in order to feel better about itself giving up. The hedgehog, on the other hand, would have probably not stopped until it found a way to reach the grapes. It would have taken full responsibility for figuring out how to get the grapes, and devoted itself entirely to having those rich, juicy grapes in its mouth, no matter what it had to do in order to achieve its goal. Everything possible would become a resource for reaching its goal. Everything not having to do with reaching those grapes would be put aside.
I hope that you’re beginning to see the point of all this. Do you want to be a hegehog, or a fox?
How can you become a hedgehog?
Author Jom Collins asks three simple questions to help you form what he calls “The Hedgehog Concept.” The answers to these three questions make up the key to having laser-like focus.
- What can your band be the best in the world at? Now what you want to be best at, but what do you seem to be hard-wired for? What do you have a natural, god-given talent for, and with enough drive and determination could be the best in the world at? What do you feel that you were born to do? And just as important, what are you not hard-wired for? What can your band not be the best in the world at?
- What will pay you well? Can you be paid well for what you feel you were born to do? In what ways can or will it pay you well?
- What are you absolutely passionate about? What would you be throwing your all into, working your butt off, just for the sheer enjoyment of it?
What seems to be the unifying answer to all these questions? I believe that a couple of them would be obvious for your band. Writing, recording, and performing music!
But I want you to be a lot more detailed than that. What type of music? To what audience? Which part are you best at? Is it in writing? Recording? Performing? In what ways can you get paid well? Is it through licensing your music to TV and Film? Are you such great performers that you could be paid top dollar for playing concerts? Go into these types of details. We’re not talking about the place you’re at now, or even where it is you want to go. We’re talking about who you are at your core. Because once you know who you are at your core, you can nurture and grow yourself into something amazing.
So, you want to be a rock star?
Now you know who you are and who you can become. Take some time to revisit your goals and see if they fit with who you are at your core. Take some time to revisit your plans, adding only things that are in line with your “Hedgehog Concept” and thrwoing out those things that aren’t. Take to heart that you are a team made up of the “right people” to help each other reach your goals. Be openly and brutally honest with each other about where you’re at as a band, trying to figure it all out together as opposed to blaming one another. And remember:
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
On the ridged and often dangerous path to “making it” in the music industry, Draven Grey and Rockstar Mindset have been described as a friend, guide, and schoolmaster. For years, they have challenged artists to dream big and take precise action. For more information about the resources, courses, and services they provide to challenge you into becoming the rock star you want to be, visit http://www.rockstarmindset.com.
©2009 Rockstar Mindset LLC
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