In his excellent book Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, Greg Kot describes how in the mid-1990s Prince (yes, that one) wanted to release two or three albums per year.
The response from his record company: You can’t do that.
His record company was really saying we can’t do that.
It’s an critical distinction, but that didn’t stop him. Prince did it anyway by starting his own label. Check out his discography.
Lessons from Prince
What does this teach us?
There are two choices when confronted with can’t:
- Acceptance, frustration, and defeat.
- Disobedience and possible failure.
For movers and shakers, there’s really only one real choice.
Short and really to-the-point. It’s that risky, disobedient bunch that translates over to the movin’ and shakin’ column. We need to get a righteous anger about us when it comes to “can’t” and failure.
First time stopping by the blog, enjoying it.
And don’t forget the brother of CAN’T who is WON’T.