John Biondi's Talk at the University of St. Thomas: Stevie Wonder & The courage to do what you want

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The secret to success (Stevie Wonder video):
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The secret to success (Stevie Wonder video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBA4vWQRBA0

Blog Post by one of the attending students:
http://heidizuehlke.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/breath-of-fresh-air/

Similarly Inspirational to me on this topic (thanks Chad) was Benjamin Zander’s talk at TED on “One-buttock living”:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html

I was asked to give a talk last Monday (03.09.09) at Delta Sigma Pi’s (a “professional business” fraternity) monthly meeting of some kind...some kind where they have “successful business professionals” (direct quote from my introduction) such as myself give talks.

I’ve done a lot of speaking of late, and some at colleges/universities — only to design and advertising students though...so it was easy to talk about my work, and the business—this was totally different, it was the over achievers club.

Still, I was happy to accept, but totally unsure of what I’d say that might connect with them — the woman who coordinated it informed me that they were mostly Economics and Business majors, and that “they would all be dressed in business-professional attire too.” — as in “in addition to you, they will also be dressed in business professional attire” I found the use of the word “too” in that sentence really amusing. Either a very passive way of trying to tell me how to dress, or a broad assumption that anyone they would vet as a “successful business professional” would naturally dress this way. I went to the school straight from a client meeting wearing jeans and an un-tucked, wrinkled purple striped shirt. I wasn’t trying to make a point, it’s just how I dressed that day.

The students started filling into the hall, men wearing suits and ties and women in equally formal business professional attire. It struck me as so odd...and I counted myself lucky not just for not having to dress that way, but for making a choice a long time ago to pursue a vocation and a lifestyle that ‘seemed like me’. Whew...I could have ended up a lot more things that aren’t me than that are.

Anyhow, in the 30 mins. I had before I was to give the talk, I put together a Keynote presentation in the front seat of my car. I decided I’d need some structure as it would be all new material for me. I was getting kind of nervous. The theme, I decided, would be: Find something that moves you (or at least something that matters to you), and have the guts to do it—no matter who says you’re wrong, and how right they might seem in weak moments. That is something I have experience with, I figured it was fairly universal. In hind site, it was the right theme.

So I started off my talk, by telling the students that, although I wouldn’t be joining them in “business formal attire Monday”, that I’d be giving them something way better: the absolute secret to success in life. Also, I threw in how to get it without trying hard at things that don’t matter much, or worrying about things that don’t matter much. Luckily advice is so nostalgic and hypothetical, the fact that I heed it ~10% of the time doesn’t matter much when you have the microphone. I’ve always like one way dialog (see this note as case in point).

I decided the most efficient way to share a concept so bold was to play a 6:37 long video of a drum solo by Stevie Wonder (circa 1961-ish). Seemed an obvious choice.

6.5 minutes of drum solo is a very, very long time to be behind a podium and not speak...particularly at the beginning of a talk like that. They aren’t “with you” yet, no one really knows if they care about what you are going to say...so they sort of wait for something to happen in the drum solo—like they want to see someone get hit in the crotch, or have a light fall on their head or something. It’s uncomfortable actually to sit there and watch people actively convincing themselves that something other than more drum solo is about to happen.

I may have been sort of consoling myself in this mildly power-abusive way—but it was oddly intimidating to be surrounded by people who are evaluating what fields have the highest starting salaries at a time when I was thinking about painting, or should I go to rehab, or back to college...I felt like Stevie Wonder was my little way of saying—in my experience, those aren’t the things you should be thinking about. Anyhow, I took a little extra pleasure knowing that, though they made the cut for the over achiever's club, I was the one who knew that the narrative arc they were trying to glean from the video they were uncomfortable watching, the punch line they were all waiting for—wasn’t coming. Just more drum solo. After it was over, they looked at me, each wondering if he/she missed the joke...or if I’d seriously over estimated their interest in Stevie Wonder. It was a good idea I had in my car beforehand, and I recommend it for your next public address! Anyhow, it was the right way to make my point to the over achievers club.

The point is, Stevie, not known by many as a drummer, leaves the roaring crowd — walks from the front of the stage where he was singing, gets help across the stage, has to be helped up and onto the drum kit— he almost falls off actually— he slowly finds the seat, and then finds each individual drum, and he begins slowly to relax into it, and then — there it is— right on YouTube: Stevie Wonder reveals the secret to success — or rather he shows what it looks like to have it. At the drums, he’s quickly moved beyond the normal concerns of life, such as the fall he almost took, and seemingly beyond his awareness of his body, and the bizarre things he does with it—not to mention his head and face movements, which are legendary. If we didn’t know him, we might just think it was blind AND criminally insane. He doesn’t care though. In fact, it doesn’t seem to even occur to him to care. That’s what makes it so great. He’s so moved by making music, that do so, in and of itself is completely fulfilling to him—and you can see it plainly.

The other point I made, and that I find possibly more interesting, is that I don’t think it matters at all if Stevie Wonder might have made an even BETTER Particle Physicist. The implication of that thought, for me, is that there is no perfect career path or perfect life path or perfect decision, there are only different paths and decisions, and the goal for me is to take and make ones that align with what moves me. Apparently the Particle Physics doors didn’t open for Stevie or, if they did, he didn’t take them. It makes no difference in the end. There isn’t a wrong path that moves you, or matters to you that you can take. There may be many right ones though. I advised that the students simply choose one and start down it. It makes no difference that Stevie Wonder might have been better suited for and, for arguments sake, more fulfilled by Particle Physics, the door that opened for him was a music door. He went through it, and it worked out well for him.

I’m over simplifying all of this in comparison to living as a student at St. Thomas, but such is the advantage of advice giving. I did add, that your path will have obstacles in it, and it’s important to believe in your choice, and act like you do even when you don’t. I’m willing to guess that as Stevie Wonder pursued what moved him, there were people close to him who encouraged him to choose a path more sensible for a blind, African American man in the 1950’s and ‘60’s. I’ll bet he had an uncle who was a custodian or something and offered him a job. Something like that came up, maybe often, and he chose not to take those paths, and to do this right you have to do that. It almost always means sacrificing comfort, or money, or security, or the confidence of loved ones to some degree. In the long run, people know when they meet someone who is doing something that moves them or matters to them for a living, and they tend to respect that.

Stevie Wonder was on the music path — and music moved him, mattered to him —and a music door opened for him, and now he’s “Stevie Wonder” the musical superstar, rather than Steveland Judkins the Particle Physicist. Either could have been wonderful though. What is certain to me, however, by the look on his face when he plays that he’d be just as happy playing drums on two buckets under a bridge as he is in that theater. Thus, I concluded to the over achievers, the secret to success is this: In your life, try to be more Stevie Wonder-ish.

I got a link today through the grapevine to a blog one of the student at my talk has. I was surprised. I found it really odd that of all the talks I’ve given, the one I was least sure about or proud of having been asked to give, and the one in which I assumed I’d find the least common ground with the audience, turned out just the opposite—at least for a handful of the students who’ve contacted me in one way or another. The only thing I did differently was to ask myself “what do these students really need that I can share? For people at their life stage, what is the signal, and what is the noise in life — and how can I give them some sense of how to tell the two apart?” which made me reflect on that for myself. I also asked myself “how can I get Stevie Wonder into my presentation?”, which helped a ton too.

Incidentally, I’m convinced that Stevie Wonder would happily have played the bagpipes if they were the only thing available..

The secret to success (Stevie Wonder video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBA4vWQRBA0

Blog Post by one of the attending students:
http://heidizuehlke.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/breath-of-fresh-air/

Similarly Inspirational to me on this topic (thanks Chad) was Benjamin Zander’s talk at TED on “One-buttock living”:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html less