The Attitude Accelerator

I recently found myself glued to an unconventional documentary. Music innocently dragged me in; acts of defiance captured my attention. In particular, I found myself mesmerized at what can be done and the people and businesses that can be influenced by defiance, mindset, boldness -- in other words: attitude.

A colleague noticed one of my tweets and said, "I see you've been watching the 'The Defiant Ones'", the docuseries I just described, which tracks the music careers of Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre. Interesting that he’d noticed. My tweets about it had been on the down-low. So how was I uncovered? The question that intrigued me…

But another question intrigued me even more: Why is attitude so easy to recognize and so yet so easily disregarded as brashness, arrogance, and rudeness? I suppose it's the same reason the conformists watch in envy as anarchists incapable of hearing criticism still manage to achieve lofty heights. It’s like when your stock broker flippantly suggests that you "sell high, buy low" when every emotion tells you to stick with the market trend — and the safety in numbers. Meanwhile, Warren Buffet comes off as a renegade for having the simple discipline to sell when the world is greedy and to buy when the world is fearful.

For Jimmy and Dr. Dre it was attitude that ultimately allowed them to sell the latest venture, Beats by Dr. Dre, to Apple for $3B. Whether you agree with their methods, you can't help but be astounded that they achieved their dreams doing it their own way, while ignoring the naysayers.

The Energy of Success

Jimmy and Dr. Dre demonstrate that attitude provides energy. These two didn't sit idle and allow others to define them. The next step or bold idea was always in play as they reinvented themselves while still in motion. They regularly walk away from great projects to take on the next improbable dream.

For Jimmy, this meant co-founding Interscope Records just as his engineering and producing career was peaking. (Most of us would be content to keep working with John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty.) Similarly, Dr. Dre transformed himself from artist to producer to co-owner of Death Row Records, only to leave millions to start his own new label, Aftermath Entertainment. Then both these innovators did it again to redesign audio electronics and a music streaming service under Beats by Dr. Dre. Jimmy noted this departure from music into streaming with “If you wait for this technology to fix your problems, it’s going to eat you, so I said, ‘I’m going on the other side.’” Maverick.

Here's a key learning: Failure is not only possible but likely. Fear of failure leads most of us back to conformity. This is the sad Jedi mind trick that that pulls us back to the masses. Point is, if you're pushing your capability you will undoubtedly fail. But who really cares? It's narcissistic to think that everyone is paying intimate attention to your life anyway. They're not. For Jimmy and Dr. Dre, failure simply meant a series of course corrections while their impossible dreams continued. Remember, you can only fail if you’re in the game.

Jimmy summarized it best in a horse racing analogy: "The reason you put blinders on horses is because if you're looking at the horse on the left or the right, you're going to miss a step.”

The Definition of Attitude

Attitude can be nebulous at first glance, but you know it when you see it. Perhaps the best explanation are the sound bites of peer musicians:

• Believe in yourself.
• Remove the ego.
• Be relentlessly and unapologetically determined.
• Be true to yourself.
• Don't conform. Be raw.
• Don't ever change who you are.
• You can't please everybody.
• Deliver quality
• Do it again, again, and again.

My definition: Define yourself, be vulnerable, and be willing to fail. Per Jon Landau, “Stay in the [bleeping] saddle.” Learning is the means to an end. Always “…look at the bigger picture”. BUT, “Don’t breathe in your own exhaust” (Two more quotes from Jimmy.)

In short, Attitude is the fuel to amplify outcomes. Don’t agree? Too bad for you! I’m already off to the next fail-fast-and-recover-faster event.

Wheels up!