Why David Bowie was very selfish about his work and why you should be, too …

Read more thoughts on the art of communicating week-daily at https://michaelgerharz.com/blog

Mentioned in this episode:

My new book is out now

You’ve got a bold vision and a strategy to achieve it! But why does your company seem to be standing still? Why is the gap between what strategy promises and what it delivers so vast and disheartening? And what to do about it? Find out in my new book “The PATH to Strategic Impact”: https://geni.us/the-path

New book

When you're an artist, it makes little sense to try to please your audience.

At least not if you take your art seriously.

If an artist were to base his work on what their audience would like to see

or hear from them, they would inevitably have to limit themselves to what they

have already produced, simply because the public cannot know what it would like.

They only know what they do already like.

If you asked them, they'd almost certainly tell you: “More of that, please.”

And that's what you would need to do.

If you strive to please, the audience you're shooting too

low, you are being too cautious.

That's why David Bowie once said that: “All my big mistakes are when I try

to second guess or please an audience.

My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.

When you are trying to please the audience you are being too cautious, which keeps

you from breaking new ground, because, well, what if they don't like it?

The problem is that no audience in this world can guess what kind

of art they haven't seen from you?

If Miles Davis had asked what his audience liked, he wouldn't never have recorded

Bitches Brew and Eddie van Halen would never have played his Eruption solo.

Stravinsky would never have composed “Le Sacre du Printemps” and John Scofield

wouldn't have recorded Time On My Hands.

Your audience understands not nearly as much about your art as you do.

They don't know what art hasn't been made by you, yet.

And they certainly can’t imagine how it looks like beyond the boundaries

of what you've done before.

So, what’s left is to trust your own judgment.

That's what Bowie was referring to when he called himself selfish about his work.

Rather than his audience he trusted his own judgment to lead him to places

where others would like to follow.

Just like Miles Davis and Eddie van Halen did.

They pioneered uncharted territory and then lighted

the path for others to follow?

The same is true for any creative: developers, designers, engineers,

communicators, you name it.

So, how selfish are you about your work?