Why entrepreneurship is like classical music

What fascinated 🤩 me about this article, and something I didn't know…

The Wendy's Company founder Dave Thomas was closely mentored by KFC's Colonel Sanders 🤯

😮 WHAAAAAAAAT??????? No way! 😄

A few years ago I undertook a major commitment and kept a blog about classical music for almost a year, creating 1000+ word posts each and every business day. It was great, but after a year I realized I wouldn't be able to maintain it. Still, I gained many benefits from doing this:

🎵 Intensive writing practice
🎵 The ability to quickly come up with creative ways to see things
🎵 An even deeper appreciation and knowledge of a subject I already loved dearly
🎵 Discipline and confidence in my follow-through

What amazed me, and what I hadn't realized before embarking upon this project, is that classical music, perhaps the greatest cultural achievement in the history of humanity, was created entirely within only 300 years. Cosmically, it doesn't even make the clock! 🌌🕕

💡 Further, and this is the important part...all of the major figures in classical music knew each other with great familiarity and frequently crossed paths. They sought each other out. They mentored each other. They promoted each other. They studied each other. They collaborated and collectively moved the art forward.

I could not BELIEVE the level of interconnection among classical composers and performers that I discovered during the process of researching and writing these posts.

If you're interested, you can read the blog here.

What I have since realized is that classical music could not have come from any place or time other than Enlightenment-era Europe with its peculiar combination of political and religious institutions, aristocratic and bourgeois classes, and the new spirit of rationality tempering ancient systems and sensibilities. The result was a cultural incubator that could have had no other result.

Conclusion: classical music was lightning in a bottle ⚡️🍾.

Connection: I think the same is true about entrepreneurship and America. A similarly peculiar set of cultural, institutional, spiritual and philosophical currents has created an entrepreneurial incubator like no other. So, while Beethoven became who he did thanks to the mentorship of Haydn (a friend and contemporary of Mozart - Beethoven would have preferred to learn from Mozart but for his untimely death), Dave Thomas became who he did thanks to the mentorship of Colonel Sanders.

I'm a little awestruck by that similarity. In the modern West, business is in our blood 🩸!

It is also a strong reminder of the power of mentorship. Who are your mentors? We've all heard that old adage about the 5 people you spend the most time with. And it's an old adage because it's true, so find them!

By the way, if you enjoyed reading that, you might like this episode of my podcast.