I was reading over on PhysicsClassroom.com this morning, in preparation for this blog post and here’s what it says about Newton’s Second Law:
“Newton’s second law states that the acceleration of an object is dependent upon two variables: 1) the net force acting upon the object and 2) the mass of the object. The acceleration of an object depends directly upon the net force acting upon the object, and inversely upon the mass of the object. As the force acting upon an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is increased. As the mass of an object is increased, the acceleration of the object is decreased.”
To move from a state of stillness, like what we talked about in a previous article, to any sort of motion, we need an accelerant. For careers or organizations that are already in motion, there always comes a time where we need to increase the rate of progress that we are making or the volume of effort that we are putting out. This also requires some sort of accelerant.
In the first case, stillness, it’s obvious why acceleration is necessary: If we don’t move forward, in whatever direction that is, nothing is going to happen. The business cannot grow. Our career cannot blossom beyond that seed of an idea that we started with. What’s a bit more mysterious is the second case. Why would someone (or some organization) that is already moving and at a perceived state of favorable equilibrium would need to move faster (or accelerate) in a particular direction to grow and thrive.
We do not run our business or grow our careers in a vacuum. There is interactivity with everything and everyone around us that we must consider. So, think about what sorts of forces exist in the marketplace.
The first one that comes to my mind is competition. In every marketplace, there are going to be other people and other organizations with the same goals and desired outcomes as you. In my world, there are other drummers looking for gigs and recording sessions. If you run a band, there are other bands with somewhat similar offerings that are also looking for gigs to fill their calendars. For teachers and schools, there are other individuals and organizations looking to fill their rosters with students.
But in any of those scenarios, you also have some not-so-obvious competitors. For private music teachers who have a constituency made up primarily of younger students, you are going to find that some of your other competitors include:
- Mandatory school time and assigned homework
- Baseball, basketball, or some other form of sport
- Boy Scouts / Girl Scouts or some church-based activity / group
- Television, YouTube, or some other passive screen-based activity
- Video games or some other active screen-based activity
- Concerts, movies, ballgames, or any other event-based activity
You will not be able to monopolize a student’s time with your own curriculum and the subsequent practice time needed to assimilate that information. Sure, maybe YOU gave up everything in pursuit of mastery on your instrument, but it is unrealistic to think that any student would could do the same thing.
For those who run a band, continued success usually means selling tickets. For public gigs that don’t require a cover charge, making sure that a sufficient number of people actually show up to see you play each and every time is the goal. So, ANY other activity that isn’t coming out to see your show is competition.
For many of those running a tribute band (which are incredibly popular currently), almost none of those groups realize that one very real competitor is the actual artist that you’re tributing. Now sure, not everyone can afford $200-1000 tickets to see their favorite band or singer, but EVERYONE can throw down $25 for the Blu-Ray concert recording of their favorite touring act. They can also choose to save a ton of money by picking up a 12-pack of beer at the grocery store, staying home, inviting some friends over, and watching that recorded concert on their 60” inch flat screen TV and immersive surround sound system.
For those in the business of creating their own music and releasing it on the streaming services (or selling that music through a website), you’ve got all of this other competition I listed before in addition to all of those other artists releasing new music into the the world every single day.
And here’s a competitor that *no one* thinks about: Your Own Music. If you’ve been around long enough and have released several albums worth of music that people already enjoy, why should they want to engage with your new music when the old stuff is still perfectly useful and enjoyable?
Realize that, no matter what the nature of your music business is, the race we are all running is a constant and on-going competition for the time and attention of other people. Acceleration is required because there truly is no such thing as an equilibrium when it comes to holding the public’s attention. You will be competing to engage and reengage each person’s attention every single day that you are in operation.
For most self-starters, your desire to operate your business and succeed financially may be enough of a fuel to power your own self-initiated propulsion. But for most people, competition from all of these other offerings serves as the driving force behind that desire to accelerate and improve the current state of business for your personal career and/or organization.
Sit for a few moments with a piece of paper and a pen. Begin listing your competitors. Feel free to start by writing down the ones I have covered but then, dig deep and find some that I have not talked about. It may not take long for you to completely fill a single sheet of paper. If you put your heads together with your business partners or co-workers, you could probably fill up an entire notebook.
Don’t get overwhelmed by this list. It only exists to give you a better understanding of why you need to accelerate. You are creating it to give you a sense of urgency. Armed with that sense and the need to move faster to out run it, begin each day thinking about what choices you can make and action steps you can take to move faster in the direction of your stretch goals.
On another day, we will sit and talk about some specific accelerants that you can harness to move forward faster and how to decrease your mass to accelerate your business exponentially.