- Let's talk a little bit about the way
that training as a musician actually develops skills
that the bigger world might want.
I can give one personal example here,
I had a business at one time,
and it was a businessy business,
there was nothing rd about it.
And when I started it,
I hired the data analysts to take these big studies
on how American people are living their lifestyles.
You know just piles of horrible data.
And turning those into quick reading interesting,
i'll highlight articles for business people.
I hired the people you'd hire,
and they could do it.
But the articles they wrote,
were so boring and dry,
that I saw my business tanking,
until I hired an out of work artist friend of mine,
to take a big miserable pile of data
and see if he could turn it into kind
of a cool, interesting article.
And he could.
He wrote a great article, so I hired him.
And eventually, over time, I ended up with a staff
of 15 people, all of whom were from the arts,
writing business data,
but with that stuff that they brought from the arts.
Now, first, let me point out that
this little business became the largest of its kind
in America in seven years,
because it was artists,
of all the different art forms, including musicians,
creating these ideas.
That's what made us
this entrepreneurial success story.
And what they brought was,
wide open ways for how to solve problems,
ways to work together in groups more effectively,
a kind of work ethic that focused on the product,
the quality of the final result,
and not just logging the hours on the job.
It was a kind of work attitude
that they brought.
Now, this is not just the work attitude,
that people who are thinking in a limited way about
orchestral lives bring,
that's almost just like regular job skills,
you know ,like any kind of office job,
you know ,you log the hours, you do your best work,
and that should be enough.
That's not what the world wants,
the skills the world wants from us
and will reward us for in the part time jobs
that are going to be required in order to pay our rent.
They want the people who bring a kind
of extra passion, a kind of zeal and personal commitment
to make each piece as good as it can be,
a kind of capacity to really see
what your partners are doing
and work together in a more effective way.
The capacity to find what is going to take
this bit of work, the extra step,
that extra commitment,
that extra personal ownership,
and the sense to listen well.
People in the in the regular world can't listen
as well as artists can,
who are really in the practice of listening.
So it's these kind of invisible skills they're looking for,
as well as a capacity to be very well organized.
To have time management
and problem solving skills together.
These are the skills that I hear out
in the business world, they're interested.
And in fact, when they see somebody has graduated
from a music school, they will take an extra
that's that's usually a plus,
if they're looking for someone to be part
of a project or even part of a, a part time arrangement.
Now you may not be so keen about the thought
of I have to take part time work
that takes me into the business world,
the capacity to take what seems like
a not so interesting job
and turn it into something interesting.
That's the art part of you.
And boy the businesses want that.
They don't just want temp workers.
They want people who can invest themselves and create
something fantastic out of each piece ,
that will turn out to be more money,
more regular gigs
and provide the kind of idiosyncratic balance
that lets you fill out the collage
of supporting a life in music
that has your chamber work
and the other business pieces of it in place
that allows you to juggle the way so many people
who are making a beautiful rich life,
in music are able to do.