Thursday, November 17, 2011

Self truth (and the best violinist in the world)


Feels like I've been quoting Seth Godin a lot lately, but this was too good not to do it again. This is one of the most important lessons I learned from Ben's Friends. 

"The quest for technical best is a form of hiding. You can hide from the marketplace because you're still practicing your technique. And you can hide from the hard work of real art and real connection because you decide that success lies in being the best technically, at getting a 99 instead of a 98 on an exam.

What we can become the best at is being an idiosyncratic exception to the standard. Joshua Bell is often mentioned (when violinists are mentioned at all) not because he is technically better than every other violinst, but because of his charisma and willingness to cross categories. He's the best in the world at being Josh Bell, not the best in the world at playing the violin."