Your Brilliant Idea Is WorthlessSeveral years ago, a few friends and I tried to start up a small record label. We recruited several music artists in the DC metro area. I remember one day we were on a conference call with this one hip hop artist.
Prior to the call, we had listened to several of his tracks. We liked him. During the call, we asked him to sort of walk us through the inspiration behind his music and his process for stitching together his music.
He refused to tell us. We found it very odd because when it comes to making music, there really aren’t any secrets. At least not the way there’s a secret formula to Coca Cola, for example. But that’s exactly the justification this guy gave us.
He said that there were trade secrets he just couldn’t divulge to us. He said that he had a distinctive bass to his tracks that he didn’t want to reveal the secret to. He also talked about his special snappy snare. He felt that if he explained it to us, he’d be revealing too much. Perhaps he thought that we would take his ideas and recreate his music.
Most intelligent people know that’s nonsense. Just because you know how somebody does something doesn’t mean you can do it yourself, let alone replicate it.
Every family has a story about Grandma’s one of a kind meatball sauce or pound cake that only Grandma can make to perfection…even though everyone else has the recipe. Music is the same way. Business too. There were mp3 players before the iPod. But Steve Jobs just happened to have that magical imagination.
The point is that an idea, in and of itself, is pretty worthless. Execution is almost everything. Two people can have the exact same concept for a song—and use the exact same tools—and one person will compose a brilliant piece while the other won’t.
The superior person’s experiences, his perspective and maybe even the chemicals inside his brain can conspire to give him an edge over the other guy.
Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby has broached this topic. He has a neat little chart that captures how idea and execution need to interplay to make something successful. It really doesn’t do much good to hide ideas from other people because there’s an infinitesimal chance that they’ll execute on them like you. That concept you have for a new song is useless unless properly executed. For someone to execute it exactly like you, they would need to have your brain. If you’re good, that means nobody can be like you. Plus, there’s far more to be gained from sharing ideas than hiding them.
Awful idea= -1
Weak idea= 1
So-so idea=5
Good idea=10
Great idea=15
Brilliant idea=20
No execution=$1
Weak execution=$1000
So-so execution=$10,000
Good execution=$100,000
Great execution=$1,000,000
Brilliant execution=$10,000,000
To make something successful, you need to multiply the two.
For example, the greatest idea, with no execution is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.
That’s why you brilliant idea is almost worthless.
November 27th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Interesting i agree with you on this one Mika, am running a label in the early start up stages and its all about execution really, especially working with hadly no budget its currently all about great ideas and great execution if possible, and at this early stage most times you can have a great idea but to execute it brilliantly you need money and if you aint good that money for that execution then you have to settle for a lesser execution. i like that Derek Sivers Chart, interesting.
December 4th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
From a purely publicity stand point, the idea that an artist has a that he is able to execute flawlessly, however possible it may be for others to execute the same, for which the first artist wants to conceal is a great publicity hook or angle. It’s one that many of the bigger companies have used over the years, ie McDonald’s “secret sauce” or KFC’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.
In my musical realm Little Walter Jacobs must have known this. Although others could replicate what he was doing, he often played with his back to his audience, and was not known to offer others secrets to what he was doing.
As a musical publicist, I am always looking for an interesting slant, angle, hook.