500 Words a Week - What can S&C learn from the music industry?

In “The Creative Act”, Rick Rubin discusses many lessons he learned from decades working in the music industry. Much of what he says applies to every industry, or every person, but there are a few topics that I feel resonate with the S&C industry.

Lifting Each Other Up

Unfortunately, within S&C there can be a tendency to be protective of our work. Be that in a quick to defend it sort of way, or being hesitant to share what we are doing. Rubin has some great things to say around cooperation:

“Think of cooperation as giving or getting a boost to see over a high wall. There’s no power struggle in this act. You are simply finding the best route to a new perspective.”

By trying to continuously keep in mind we are looking for the best perspective, the best idea, we can move ourselves and our practice forward.

We need to be careful when we feel our ego rise to the surface.

“The ego demands personal authorship, inflating itself at the expense of the art.”

Replace art for anything else, our programmes, our coaching, how we interact with others. We need to subside our ego.

I think some of this stems from the S&C industry being small, therefore competition is fierce. Rather than thinking of competing with others, Rubin asks us to reframe our notion of competition.

“There is another type of competitiveness that might be seen as an infinite gain: a story that can continue to unfold over the course of an artist’s life. This is the competition with the self. Think of self-competition as a quest for evolution. Growth over superiority.”

Beginners Mindset

This might link into above around lifting each other up and trying to protect ourselves from our own egos. Continuously embracing the beginner’s mindset will help us against this.

“Experience provides wisdom to draw from, but tempers the power of naivete.”

Naivete can be a good thing. It can help us challenge the status quo, it can help us look for ways of improving what we’ve always done.

“The energy of wonder and discovery can get lost when treading the same ground over and over again.”

Visit new places, learn from different people, talk with people in vastly different fields and see what you can garner for your own practice.

“Living in discovery is at all times is preferable to living through assumptions.”

Open yourself to new ideas, forget your previous assumptions.

“Think back to when you were a hopeful beginner, when the tools of your craft were exotic and new. Remember the fascination of learning, the joys of your first steps forward.”

Defining Success

Our definition of success may be hindering us. Too often we only associate success with the external, this can be a hard metric for us to define our worth as we can’t control the external.

“Success has nothing to do with variables outside yourself. Most variables are completely out of our control. The only ones we can control are doing our best work, sharing it, starting the next, and not looking back.”

In times of doubt, can we revert to the above, focusing on what we can control. 

The Process

“The pursuit doesn’t have to be agonizing. It can be enlivening. It’s up to you.”

The journey is what we make of it, how we interpret it and go through it is up to us.

“To hone your craft is to honour creation. It doesn’t matter if you become the best in your field. By practicing to improve, you are fulfilling your ultimate purpose on this planet.”

Stop worrying about others, stop worrying about comparing your path to other’s paths. Just focus on honing your craft. The rest will follow.

To conclude, I think we can be guilty of taking ourselves too seriously and thus ruining the fun of working in a wonderful profession.

“Seriousness saddles the work with a burden. It misses the playful side of being human. The chaotic exuberance of being present in the world. The lightness of pure enjoyment for enjoyment’s sake.”