When I wrote Part I of this unintentional series two days ago, I was leading up to today’s post about Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
A Blue Ocean Strategy is a plan to “fish where no one else is fishing.” Dell is an example of a company that employed this logic. At a time when the only option for a computer was HP or some other manufacturer, a college student bought some parts and made a custom computer. At a time when there were no options whatsoever, he gave people customization. Same thing with Microsoft, Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, etc. etc.
In hindsight, I should have done the same thing. I’ll never forget practicing with a band at a rehearsal hall in Nashville after I was here about 5 years. During a break, I stood in the hall and read all the business cards on the bulletin board. Literally every other person was a drummer. Drummer – guitar player – drummer – bass player – drummer – guitar player – drummer, drummer, drummer…
At the time I correctly thought “man, I’m blessed to be working at all and I’ll never complain again.” I held true to that decision and I never did complain about the work and career I had.
We all need to face the reality that there are others trying to do exactly the same thing we’re doing. There are many ways to face this challenge, and I’ll continue to discuss them as long as I write, but today I’m talking about NOT facing them. Instead, I’m talking about avoiding them all together.
I was a good drummer, but there were plenty of those. I was also a good singer and I could’ve been a good producer. Of course there are plenty of those too, but each of those offered me opportunities that drumming did not. For singing, I have an unusually high voice as I’ll illustrate with some stories in a moment. As for producing, there simply aren’t that many people that wake up each morning saying “I want to produce records” – it’s a bit of a blue ocean.
Second to drumming, the musical thing I love most is singing. And as for the unusually high voice. Well, two stories: One, to this day I cannot go through a drive through without the person on the other end of the intercom saying, “would you like fries with that Ma’am?” Second, as a drummer, my job was always to count off the recordings. Ya know: “1 – 2 – 3 – 4!”. Well, invariably I’d hear later how people hearing my count would ask who the chick was that was playing drums.
If I had applied myself to singing – to getting great, instead of good – it’s likely that I would have had a lucrative and sustainable career. Truth is, I debated it many, many times which is ultimately the point of this admittedly long post.
Learn to trust your gut and keep yourself open to the opportunities that are just slightly off from what you THINK you should be doing. I had several ideas and thoughts over the years for how I “coulda, shoulda, woulda”, but each time I threw them out and stuck to my original plan of playing drums as a sideman.
That was shortsighted and stubborn of me, but I realized it too late to make a difference. Don’t let that happen to you. Set your goals, work your tail off, but don’t miss the subtle hints and signs that life gives you that often make all the difference between a good life and a great one.
