As a kid, Risk was primarily a military strategy board game that we played for fun. As an adult, Risk is something much more real that we all have to deal with in our everyday lives. Sometimes, the risks we face are small or insignificant while, at other times, a risk can present itself as an overwhelming threat to either our personal or professional survival.
Our brains are great at filtering out most daily risk scenarios or have long accepted the risk assessments we have unconsciously made about activities like driving a car, buying a meal from a food truck, or saying “Hello” to an attractive stranger. The stakes in most daily activities are either very low or the negative outcomes have been downgraded as having short-term downsides.
(…well, except for that pretty girl you said “Hi” to this morning. You may possibly find yourself saying “Goodbye” to her and half of everything you own in a divorce court three decades later because of that seemingly harmless greeting.)
For those of us who have chosen creativity as our engine for career and livelihood, risk is something we wake up to, stare in the face all day long, and go to bed with at the end of the day… every day. Whether you’re a musician, painter, writer, or any other form of creative professional, risk is a constant compadre that you must dance with and learn to accept if you are going to have any longevity in the arts.
Risk can be a pain point or it can be your partner. Your choice… Risk doesn’t care either way. But what does that mean in a more practical sense?
When it comes to trading time for dollars, saying “Yes” to one gig call or client means I am effectively saying “No” to all other options for that exact same slot of time. For musicians, this often comes in the form of live gigs. How many times has this happened to you:
Client A calls you for a Saturday wedding gig that is 3 months away, maybe even longer. Because, at that moment, you have nothing on the calendar for that day, you enthusiastically say “YES!” and lock yourself into that date, at that location, for that amount of time. In accepting the gig, you also find out that the gig pays $250. On the surface, a reasonable proposition.
Now, some of us gig (combat) veterans may ask a few probing questions before doling out that affirmative response:
1. Where is the gig? (Unstated question: How far do I have to drive & how much time am I going to burn getting to and from the gig?)
2. What time is the downbeat (first note of the evening)?
3. How long do we play / What time do we stop playing?
4. What time is load-in?
5. What time is the sound check?
*You will notice that I made #2-5 completely separate questions. This is because I have burned more times than I can count by the 10AM load-in that doesn’t actually soundcheck until 3PM… for the gig that doesn’t start till 8PM.)
6. Are they feeding us (and, if so, WHAT are they feeding us?)
7. What’s the attire? (Dry cleaning an outfit is a recurring expense that few musicians factor in.)
8. Do you have a song list / set list? (Unstated question: How many songs that I may never play again do I have to learn for this gig?)
(All my battle-worn friends know that they could add another 10 possible questions to this list but then, that might make you or I seem “difficult to work with” or “picky”, right?)
Now, after doing all of your reconnaissance, let’s say you decide to say “Yes” to the gig. All of the conditions seem reasonable when measured against the amount of money you will get paid…
(Ok, let’s be honest: All things considered, when you add up EVERYTHING you had to do and/or acquire to be prepared for that gig:
- 5,000-15,000 hours worth of practice on your chosen instrument.
- Tens of thousands of dollars for lessons / schooling, books, videos, and other educational material.
- Thousands of hours of relationship building and networking to get that gig call.
- $5,0000-$20,000 on the gear needed to play this gig.
- 5,000-15,000 hours worth of time playing other gigs like this one.
- [Add your own other considerations here]
There’s probably no gig or session in the world that truly pays “enough” money, right?! But I digress.)
Once you say “Yes” to Client A’s gig, invariably, you will start saying “No” to at least a dozen other calls for that exact same day and exact same time slot. To add insult to injury, the pay for each of those other gigs is usually anywhere from $100 to 3X as much money as the first gig opportunity.
(Dear Universe: Why is it that everybody gets married on the exact same Saturday in June, leaving me with 3 other weekends in June where I’m left sitting on the couch wondering why everyone hates me and didn’t call me for other gigs, too.)
If we say “Yes” and commit ourselves to a long-term gig with multiple dates, across months and possibly years, then we risk not being on many other people’s Call List for future gigs going forward.
“I’m pretty sure Brian’s already busy. Maybe we should call XXX instead.” has been uttered more times in my life, outside of my earshot, than I’d like to think about.
SO, FOR THE RECORD: I’m probably NOT gigging or recording on the day that you’re trying to book right now, so CALL ME before deciding to call someone else! PLEASE!
(Whew… what’s that smell? Ummmmm… desperation?)
In general, what helps me to effectively deal with risk is to think squarely about all of the things that I CAN control. To help me with pointing out all of the things you can control, I’m going to refer to this great list of key dimensions of control from General Stanley McChrystal’s new book called “Risk: A User’s Guide”
- Communication
- Narrative
- Structure
- Technology
- Diversity
- Bias
- Action
- Timing
- Adaptability
- Leadership
He states, “By closely monitoring these controls, we can maintain what I call a ‘Healthy Risk Immune System’ that allows us to effectively anticipate, identify, analyze, and act upon the always-present possibility that things will not go as planned.”
In my own life most recently, I had to weigh the risks of putting my own time and “sweat equity” into someone else’s long-term musical project. Over the course of 10 months, this meant not participating in so many of the day-today things that I needed to do to successfully manage the line-up of current income streams that I hold primary and/or sole ownership of:
- Secret Cove Studios (my production homebase)
- Designer Drum Tracks (my custom drum tracking brand)
- Session Ace (in-ear monitors & other musical product lines)
- My podcasts: Dial-A-Drummer and Fader Jocks
- DrumCorner.net (my new drum lesson website & virtual community)
- Fader Jocks Pro (an upcoming online teaching site for audio engineers and music producers)
- In-Person & virtual drum and audio engineering private lessons
- Freelance drumming for other live gigs
- Freelance on-location work as a recording engineer and Front of House mixer
- Freelance studio work as both a drummer and an audio engineer
- Writing for drum and audio related publications
And then, there’s all of the unpaid time spent on the content creation that is needed these days on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and my blog that act as practical marketing tools for the services I offer and products that I sell.
After doing a SWOT analysis on the aforementioned band opportunity and going through a personal risk assessment on my decision, becoming involved in that project seemed like the answer to a question I borrowed & morphed slightly from Tim Ferriss: “What are the 1 or 2 things that I can do today that render everything else on my To-Do list unnecessary?”
If that one band was touring and playing lucrative gigs every week, keeping a steady flow of income coming in, then maybe I wouldn’t need to spend so much time on all of these other personally driven income streams. (And that would give me more time to learn how to play golf, too!)
Long story short, although there was that glimmer of a huge upside on the horizon, the weaknesses and threats that I had outlined before taking on this new gig opportunity did finally come to fruition and resulted in the unfortunate outcome that I had hoped to avoid. All that said, it was the risk I chose to take, and all things being equal, I would not change the decision I made at the time. Thankfully, it taught me some valuable new lessons that I can use going forward (but discussing those will have to wait for another time and another blog post)
If you want to hear General Stanley McChrystal talk at great length about managing risk, I’d recommend TIm Ferriss’ recent interview at https://tim.blog/2021/09/30/general-stanley-mcchrystal/. It’s a masterclass on dealing with risk and looking at what sort of conditions and parameters you can control in business.
If you want to do a DEEP dive, the General’s new book, “Risk: A User’s Manual” is available on Amazon and Audible.