Crowdfunding is the end, not the beginning

Most of the interviewers in celebrity interviews dwell unnecessarily on the personal lives of the interviewees. Though such topics make the show more sensational and can receive crowd’s attention, it teaches us, the mere mortals, nothing. It doesn’t offer us any takeaways that inspire us to become like someone whose work we admire.
 
As a result, we form this false idea of success. Many crowdfunding projects fail to reach their goals because of this false notion. 

“The worst name ever for an internet company is Kickstarter. It should be Kickfinisher. You actually start 4 or 6 years beforehand. You build a network, you pay it forward to the community, you are trusted, you are liked. And then, the Kickstarter is easy because you just whisper to the people: “You know me and the thing I do? It’s ready.” It wasn’t the big launch, it’s the big finish. It takes 10 years to press the button not 10 minutes.
It turns out the long way is the shortcut.”

The ‘emergency’ attitude doesn't work in reality. It takes years of hard work to become an overnight successful person. Therefore, we should probably consider our projects as an organized hobby. 

“Fast starts are never as important as a cultural hook, consistently showing up and committing to a process.

Build an asset. Large numbers of influential people who read your blog or read your emails or watch your TV show or love your restaurant or-or-or...
Then, put your idea into a format where it will spread fast. Then, if your idea catches on, you can sell the souvenir edition.”

‘The myth of the overnight success’ is clearly, a myth. 

Are you an artist or a businessman?

This article on Medium resonated with me as it helps explain the difference between an artist and a businessman. It reminded me to focus on personal growth and become a better version of myself instead of competing with others. I am sharing some few profound wisdom from the article below. 

“The businessman experiments to find what works, then milks that success for all it is worth.
The artist experiments to find what works, then lets it die and moves on. She must display as much detachment to her work in the world as she does emotion to it in her mind.

You make something. You die. You live again in whatever comes next.

The artist is a Phoenix.

If I am looking for validation in the reaction to my work, it’s because I forgot to die. Insecurity comes when I forget to die. Doubt comes when I forget to die. Fear comes when I forget to die.


Life is not found in applause. It is in silence, in the moment where the world melts away, the lights go dim, and nothing else really matters so much.”

What’s fame for?

““Anyone whose dreams of fame were formed in the pre internet age is likely to be surprised by the contemporary reality.””

— https://twitter.com/alaindebotton/status/536743262758121472

The above quote resonated with me and prompted me to think and research more on this inevitable self-esteem spoiler: fame.  

Many of us, at some point in our life, would have wanted to become famous. If you are an artist or in the performing arts domain, you would definitely have dreamed about the limos and the crowd waving at you when you get out of the limo.

“What makes a celebrity special? She was just an ordinary person a month or a year ago, but now, suddenly, your heart goes flitter-flutter when you meet her, or you want an autograph.

One way to consider fame is that it increases the options for the person at the same time the number of demands go up. In other words, celebrity makes the celebrity’s attention more valuable.

It’s exciting to shake hands or get an autograph from a famous person, then, because the celebrity has something others want, you’re getting a slice of attention from someone who has other options. But she didn’t exercise those options—she chose you.

By this definition, you’re famous. Compared to just a few years ago, more people know you, you have more options, and your attention is far more precious than it ever was.”

In the internet age, being famous can be increasing the numbers on social media channels. However, we hardly ask this question - What’s fame for? This is something worth pondering about especially since we are living in the most crowded creative time ever. We are not entitled to attention or leverage anymore.

“Are you just doing something to get more famous? If so, why? If you couldn’t see your numbers, would you still do it? For example, are you only trying to grow your Twitter followers because you can see the number of Twitter followers you have?”

This calls for a redefinition of fame.

“There is famous and there is famous to the family. And famous to the family is precisely the goal of just about all marketing now. You need to be famous to the small circle of people you are hoping will admire and trust you.

By famous, I mean admired, trusted, given the benefit of the doubt. By famous, I mean seen as irreplaceable or best in the world. Being famous to the family is far more efficient than being famous to everyone. It takes focus, though. And failing to be famous to the family is precisely why most Kickstarters fail.

The race to be slightly famous is on, and it’s being fueled by the social and tribal connections permitted by the net. We give a lot of credit and faith to the famous, but now there are a lot more of them. Over time, once everyone is famous, that will fade, but right now, the trust and benefit of the doubt we accord the famous is quite valuable.

The world is more open to a new thing than we think it is, as long as we can accept the fact that it’s never going to be really popular. It’s just going to make a small difference and give us the privilege to do it again.”

Fermata: The importance of point of view in music

Beethoven’s fifth symphony has something called Fermata, which means 'play it as you feel'. What this implies is that a musician must have a point of view when expressing himself. 

In this internet age when music recording, gear, and production is commoditized, the only way to thrive is to be yourself, that is having a point of view or niche. 

“Your POV as a creative is like your handwriting: it’s your unique aesthetic fingerprint that you unconsciously put on everything that you make. It’s the way that you see things— your point of view. It’s what sets you apart from everyone else, it’s the thing nobody else in the whole world can copy, and it’s what ultimately makes you valuable.”

So, how do you find your POV? 

“The stuff that you enjoy the most and comes easiest to you is in your POV. The stuff that never comes out well no matter how much you grind at it isn’t in your POV. Do more of the shit that works and less of the shit that doesn’t, and eventually you’ll figure out what your POV is.

Note that your POV may not end up being what you expected it to be, or what you wish it were. You might have thought you were going to be the dude who is really good at super clean, hyper-perfect guitars only to find that what comes naturally to you is raw, natural organic drum sounds.

But you don’t really get to choose your POV, you just find it. So get comfortable with it.

You also need to be careful about where you invest your energy. Learn to say no to anything that takes you off that path!”

That said, in the age of Wikipedia where no one is an expert, abandoning your POV can sometimes be useful in curation, which is a form of authorship/creation in itself. 

“All these elements — the abandonment of “point of view,” the willingness to consider the present with the same urgency as the past, the borrowing “of wit or wisdom from any man who is capable of lending us either,” the desire to understand the mechanisms by which we are made to understand — are cornerstones of intellectual innovation in the Internet age. In particular, the liberation from “authorship” (brought about by the emergence of a “hive mind”) is starting to have immediate implications.”

Why music is something we need?

More often than not, we tend to look for meanings in lyrics of the song. Many vocalists, before they perform, tend to explain what they are singing about and then sing. However, music’s calming effect is felt not by understanding but by the tonal effect. Alain de Botton explains this using lullaby and the story of Cerberus from Greek mythology as an example. 

“A humbling point that a lullaby reveals is that it’s not necessarily the words of a song that make us feel more tranquil. The baby doesn’t understand what’s being said but the sound has its effect all the same. The baby is showing us that we are all tonal creatures long before we are creatures of understanding.
The musician can, at point, trump anything the philosopher might tell us. The most effective way to deal with the problem may simply be to play us music. Music is the greatest mood adjustor we have ever invented. It is the axe that breaks the frozen sea within us. It can lend dignity to our sorrows, framing and containing what might otherwise be unmanageable grief. It returns us to life gently nudging us to return to the side of generosity and hope. We can follow in music’s grooves of confidence, when our own will is sagging.”

That’s why music is something we need and not merely a want. 

“Music can reunite us with feelings we need but have lost touch with. It reconciles us to a sadness within which we have had to be brave and stoic not to feel. It is there for us like a comforting parent in moments of despair. It reconnects us with our instinctual, bodily selves when reason, logic and discipline are in danger of crushing us. We fully discover our debt to music when we can acknowledge just how powerless we sometimes are to change our moods through reason alone. A good life does not only need a library of ideas, it requires a vast and ever changing playlist that can systematically tug us back to our more hopeful, sensitive and resilient selves.”

The tonal effect of music is not just felt by babies and human beings, in general, but, is also, felt by dogs. The calm yet assertive tone of the master makes dogs listen to him. That’s one reason we shouldn’t yell and shout on top of our voices to get our point across. We must control our tone yet be assertive when we want to communicate our point across to someone. That’s another takeaway from music.

Check out related blog posts below:

How do musicians process grief in the modern era? 

What is music for? 

The consolations of music

[UPDATE]

Here's how we can use our microphones - by whispering and controlling our tone. 

“We feel speech and words long before we hear the words, and we hear the words long before we understand them.

The solution is simple: whisper.

Practice whispering.

Whisper when you type, whisper when you address a meeting.

Lower your voice, slow your pace, and talk more quietly.”

Music may be the finest therapy humanity has ever invented. If you like our films, take a look at our shop (we ship worldwide): http://bit.ly/2czLAUv FURTHER READING "One of the most calming things that societies have ever devised is the lullaby. In almost every culture there has ever been, mothers have rocked and sung their babies to sleep.