Page 37 - Executive Warfare

Attitude, Risk, and Luck

I don’t care what your parents told
you. You can’t be anything you want to be. Some people simply cannot
play the piano well, no matter how hard they try. Some people will never
succeed as investment bankers, either.
Even among those people who do play the piano well, very few will get
to Carnegie Hall. On the other hand, a substantial number of them could
conceivably make a good living at a piano bar. The same holds true in
every kind of career. Most businesspeople will never be invited to run
General Electric. But that doesn’t mean they can’t become rich and famous
at a solar panel startup or old-line fabric house.
Much of life—and work—is about finding the right instrument to play
in the right orchestra. Sounds easy? It’s not.
I figured this out early. Like most public school kids of my era, my
musical education started with the flutophone, which is basically a baby
clarinet without a reed.
Then, in fourth grade, it came time for the kids in my class with any
degree of talent or non-talent to join the school band. So we each got an
appointment with the head of the music department, Mr. Wetzel.
Mr. Wetzel asked me, “Well, David,
what instrument do you want to play?”
Excitedly, I said,“I really want to play MUCH OF LIFE—
the clarinet.” This was the natural next AND WORK—IS
step after the flutophone. ABOUT FINDING THE
“We don’t have any more clarinets,” RIGHT INSTRUMENT
he said. “All the clarinets are gone.” TO PLAY IN THE
“That’s okay,”I responded cheerfully. RIGHT ORCHESTRA.
“Then I want to play the saxophone.”
He shook his head. “You can’t play
the saxophone unless you play the clarinet first.”
I thought. A trumpet is like the clarinet because you blow through it,
and it has keys and stuff. Besides, it’s kind of a cool instrument. After all,
Louis Armstrong played one. “What about the trumpet?”

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