In my late 20’s I realized that I didn’t want to be a businessman and that I preferred creating and playing music. What I didn’t know at that moment was that the two selves weren’t separate, meaning that if I wanted to have a family and a home and be a musician, it was in my interest to be a good businessman, too.
In my seven years in the carpet business, I learned how to organize, work on complex projects, defer to people more skilled than me, negotiate, study what I did not know and protect my business from obsolescence or competition.
I also learned that I love diversity. In the carpet business, I had to learn about my product and sell it to end users and designers, but I also acquired the ability to read blueprints, visit a job site and anticipate how to make sure that our 20% profit (or less) wouldn’t disappear because of a mistake made in the estimating phase. The pressure was high and the competition was fierce and it was, sometimes, very exciting.
Ultimately, though, the need to win led to winning at all costs and that was not an environment that I wanted to remain in. In schools, libraries and summer camps, I discovered an environment that was more nurturing, less cut throat and considerably more values-driven. I learned that I wanted to be involved with people who were interested in making the world better. As well, I learned that I found it delightful to work (or play) with children.
I also discovered that being with my wife, Beth, 24/7/365 was wonderful. We were quickly becoming not just married partners, but best friends, too. In each other, we found the Yin to our partner’s Yang, a person we could harmonize with and talk non-stop with on long car rides to and from gigs. Our marriage wasn’t perfect, but we did find the perfect way to connect with one another and then share that magic with our audiences. We were the brand, not our music, and it continues to be so 32 years later.
Over the course of our career, we developed material for a variety of age groups and deepened our knowledge of what children needed and how to convey it through music. We also shared our love of songwriting, yoga, mindfulness, kindness, deep listening, humor and forgiveness. In other words, almost everything that made us better people and a better couple found its way into assemblies, residences and into the songs, themselves.
In my next post, I will tell you what we’ve been doing lately. We are no longer just children’s musicians and that is opening up a whole new and exciting world for us.
Thanks for joining us!
