#153: Live in a way that allows you to create

Two weeks ago I wrote about the power of a librarian’s mindset; that by being both curious and curatorial we give ourselves the possibility of seeing patterns and opportunities where others may see confusion, that by reading widely we experience the infinite ways we can be human, and so we empower ourselves to live and lead more effectively.

It is an important but weighty way to think about reading.

Retired teacher Antonio La Cava’s three-wheeled library reminded me that reading is also about joy.

If you need a smile, take three minutes to watch this. Cava says, “We cannot live without a book”. I think that is true for all of us here. For the children of the remote villages he visits, Cava’s little blue Piaggio Ape is undoubtedly the planet’s cutest life-support system.

Last week, I said that I started to write about war, and I might eventually finish that piece. For this week, hope and possibility were more my mood, and so we go to Krista Tippet’s recent interview with legendary music producer, Rick Rubin.

/ strategy – inhabit what you make

Rick Rubin co-founded Def Jam with Russel Simmonds. He has produced LL Cool J, Johnny Cash, Public Enemy, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers to name just a few. He is one of the most significant shapers of the global music industry, instrumental in creating many of its successes, a master strategist and creator.

Rubin starts the conversation with Tippet by saying, “Our creativity doesn’t come from our ideas … Everything we do has all of ourselves in it. It can have all of ourselves deeply in it, or it could just be surface level. But either way, we’re inhabiting the things that we’re making. The good ones have our soul… they have a piece of us in them”.

I listened to that a few times. Of course, I loved it.

It is the essence of this letter, that we occupy all that we create, and that if we do so with the intention to bring the best of ourselves, our souls, our essence, into our creations, they will be good. And that therefore to do good work, we need to nurture ourselves. It was quite something to hear the sentiment expressed by someone with Rubin’s success.  Strategy, soul, and self.

Of course, the shadow also applies. If we don’t bring ‘a piece of us’ into our work, it is likely to be mundane and uninspiring, not only to ourselves but to those around us.

If we skate over the surface of our days and lives, never pausing to reflect and learn, our work will only ever be surface-level superficial. Great work requires that we’re in it – literally.

He says his success, “it’s not intellectual, it’s not based on looking at any charts or any analysis. It’s only based on a feeling in me of what are the things that make me lean forward? What are the things that make me laugh? What are the things that make me excited? What do I find beautiful today that I didn’t notice yesterday? What are those things?”

As we’d said last week, ‘do what thrills you’.

It’s an interesting challenge for those of us who occupy worlds of charts and data and analysis.

We might be inclined to dismiss Rubin as a whacky, overly bearded creative (after all the podcast is entitled “Magic, Everyday Mystery, and Getting Creative”, so it would be easy to do), and yet, his approach has created tremendous success. Before you dismiss it, pause, and think about how you might apply that intuition to your business or your career.

What is it that you’re drawn to? What makes you smile?

Rubin reflects that he started producing music out of frustration. He was going to underground clubs, listening to hip-hop but he felt that the rap records being released failed to capture the energy in the club. The producers of the time didn’t adapt their techniques and so stripped the sound of its soul – their years of professionalism prevented them from being able to listen. Rubin wanted to release records that were true to what he was hearing in the club, he wanted to evoke what he was feeling for others.

He says, “You know, at the time that we were making hip-hop records, there was no expectation that anybody would like what we were doing. We were making things on an artisanal level for ourselves and our friends. That’s it. The fact that it has taken on a life of its own is really shocking.”

As he thinks back on how those producers ‘missed’ hip-hop, he notes that there is more than craft and technique to success, that “the only way to do things in a considered way, is to live in a way that gives you the sensitivity and data that allows you to create in a curated way… (then) you have the material to curate from”.

In a sense, Rubin takes us back to being a librarian, by being curious and connected we gather the material we need to make magic.

// self – often it happens when you don’t know it’s happening

Rubin tells us that in the recording studio, “we tend to record everything because often it happens when you don’t know it’s happening”. It being the magic.

He goes a step further saying that he has made notes on things he’s observed and then years later he reads them and is shocked “not because it’s not accurate, but that I didn’t know that I knew it. I didn’t know it, but I recognized it in that moment, (and) was able to capture it”.

One of the most powerful shifts I see in my clients’ lives is when they start to record and reflect on their lives. The simple act of taking a few minutes to consider the day’s events, helps them see when they didn’t know that they knew. Gaining that knowledge helps them inhabit their world, it helps them make magic.

/// soul – ‘there’s so much that we think we know that we don’t know’

A few years ago, Rubin found himself crying whilst watching AlphaGo, a documentary about the first time AI defeated a Go master.

The scene that brought the tears was one in which the AI was confronted with a choice for its next move. Centuries of accumulated wisdom said that there were two options available. The AI chose neither. The grandmaster left the table, disgusted that his time and skill was being wasted. The expert commentators concurred that the AI had failed. Eventually, the grandmaster returned. Play continued. He lost. The wrong choice was right.

Rubin reflects that his tears were not of despair, but of hope, that at that moment the computer demonstrated how much of what we hold to be true can distract from what is best, accumulated wisdoms can cloud our vision.

The AI brought to Go what Rubin brought to music production, a way of seeing that was simultaneously new and old.

Old in the sense that it looked for possibility by being deeply connected to the moment and all in it. New because by being present in this ancient, soulful way, both Rubin and AlphaGo – connected to the immediacy of the moment – were able to create new paths.

That was fun. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can subscribe to this letter here.

Karl

PS: If you’re wanting to create a new path for yourself (or remove some obstacles clouding your vision), you might enjoy working with me. You can learn more about my coaching practice here. I have a few slots available for new clients from June.