Lessons from Job Number 7 : The Honesty Paradox - Shelly Palmer
▻http://www.shellypalmer.com/2016/08/lessons-job-number-7-honesty-paradox
Diplomatie ou mots francs, c’est la question. Je préfère la deuxième attitude.
I was hired as a composer/producer by a legendary jazz musician who owned a prominent commercial music production company. He was famous, his company was famous and I was in heaven. He had a recording studio at his suburban estate and we would spend a few days each week working from there.
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I entered the studio to find a young teenager (maybe 14 years old) carrying a guitar case. His tiger mom and tiger dad were gleefully looking at all the equipment and cables. This was going to be interesting.
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My boss said, “Whenever you’re ready” and sat down. After fidgeting for a few seconds, the kid started to play “Stairway to Heaven.”
It was an unfortunate performance.
About 10 seconds later, my boss said, “Wow. Thanks for that” and politely asked him to stop.
The parents smiled broadly, expecting to hear what they were longing to hear from one of the most plugged-in producers in the world. Their smiles turned to expressions of astonishment, then horror, then anger as my boss quietly said, “Well, I tell you what. Your son has absolutely no musical talent. None at all. If he wants to play for his own enjoyment, I would highly encourage him to do so. But I can tell you with absolute certainty that he will never be able to play professionally and has no chance at making a living in the music business.” There was excruciating silence as the words hit their mark. Then came the screams, the crying, the begging to let him try again, the insults toward my boss, screams of “How could you!” from my boss’s wife, more screaming from Tiger Mom, curses from Tiger Dad, and then they were gone.
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I timidly asked him, “Why did you do that?”
He stopped what he was doing, gave me his full attention, and asked, “How long did it take you to realize this kid had no talent?” “I knew before he started,” I said, “while he was tuning his guitar.” “Right,” said my boss. “I didn’t hear him tune up, but if I had, I would not have wasted the time to let him play.”
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I can still clearly hear his voice: “Shelly, this kid has absolutely no musical talent. You know it, I know it and now they know it. Can you imagine what would happen to this kid if I smiled, politely applauded and offered words of praise and encouragement? He would waste the next 10 years of his life taking music lessons and dreaming of an impossible future. What if this kid is the next Jonas Salk or some other great doctor, but he never concentrates on that because he thinks he’s going to be a professional musician? I saved this kid. I really did.”
