The 50th Law - 50 Cent [38]
SOCIAL FLOW
Working with people on any level can be a disorderly affair. They bring their differences and own energy to the project, as well as their own agendas. The natural tendency for a leader is to try to tamp down these differences and get everyone on the same page. This seems like the strong thing to do, but in fact it stems from that infantile fear of the unpredictable. And in the end it becomes counterproductive, as those who work for you bring less and less energy to the task. After an initial burst of enthusiasm in your venture, the discontent of those working for you can quickly stifle any momentum you had developed.
Early in his career, the great Swedish director Ingmar Bergman used this more tyrannical approach in dealing with his actors, but he began to be dissatisfied with its results and so decided to experiment with something different. He would sketch out the script for a film, leaving the dialog mostly open. He would then invite his actors to bring their own energy and experiences into the mix, shaping the dialog to fit their emotional responses. This would make the screenplay come alive from within, and sometimes it would require rewriting parts of the plot. In working with the actors on this level, Bergman would enter their spirit, mirroring their energy as a way to get them to relax and open up. He allowed for this more and more as his career evolved, and the results were astonishing.
The actors came to love this, feeling more involved and engaged; they wanted to work with him, and their enthusiasm carried over into their performances, each one better than the last. His films had the feel of something much more lifelike and engaging than those structured around some rigid script. His work became increasingly popular as he went further with this collaborative process.
This should be your model in any venture that involves groups of people. You provide the framework, based on your knowledge and expertise, but you allow room for this project to be shaped by those involved in it. They are motivated and creative, helping to give the project more flow and force. You are not going too far in this process; you set the overall direction and tone. You are simply letting go of that fearful need to make people do exactly as you desire. In the long run, you will find that your ability to gently divert people’s energy in your direction gives you a wider range of control over the shape and result of the project.
CULTURAL FLOW
In the 1940s, the great saxophone player Charlie Parker single-handedly revolutionized the world of jazz with his invention of the style known as bebop. But he watched it soon become the convention in jazz, and within a few years he was no longer the revolutionary figure worshipped by hipsters. Younger artists emerged who took his inventions to other levels. This was immensely disturbing to him and he spiraled downward, dying at an early age.
The trumpeter Miles Davis had been a part of Parker’s ensemble and he personally witnessed this decline. Davis understood the situation at its core—jazz was an incredibly fluid form of music that underwent tremendous changes in style in short periods of time. Because America did not honor or take care of its black musicians, the ones who found themselves surpassed by a new trend had to suffer a terrible fate, like Parker. Davis vowed to overcome this dynamic. His solution was to never settle on one style. Every four years or so, he would radically reinvent his sound. His audiences would have to catch up with the changes, and most often they did.
It soon became a self-fulfilling prophecy, as he was seen as someone who had his finger on the latest trend, and his new sound would be studied and emulated. As part of this strategy, he would always hire the youngest