Ah—but then you don’t know music. A crescendo merely increases the intensity of music from where it currently is.  Now let’s apply this to your life. If you haven’t been humbled in the past few weeks, or had minor set-backs, then welcome to the minority.  Everyone on earth is here for the human experience, which means there will be challenges and set-backs.  Living in Crescendo means that you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back into the game. The key is to once again get excited about the game, whatever it may be.

So what do you do when you find your crescendo?  Here’s my suggestion:  make sure that you spend a little more time each day on your passion than the prior day. (And conversely, spend a little less time each day on the non-essential things you find yourself doing in life.)  Shed your baggage, even if it means earthly possessions.  They all go back in the box at the end of the game anyway. Live within your means, but mean to live within your passions.

Did you watch Starwars and immediately understand what Obo Wan Kenobe was talking about when he told Luke Skywalker to “Know the Force” and do you even understand today? This blog is where academia ceases and the art of Zen comes more into play.  And to help you answer this question, I will guide you Socratically with some more questions:

1. When were you the happiest in the past few weeks? Why?
2. When was the last time in your life you sprang out of bed motivate? Why?
3. If you could create something, anything, what would it be, regardless of cost?
4. What do you NOT like to do?  Why?
5. If you could have one Epitaph on your gravestone, what would it be?

Now let me ask you if you have ever taken some evaluation tests such as:

1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument.   “Whatever the circumstances of your life, the understanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, your judgments sounder, and your life closer to your heart’s desire.”  Isabel Briggs Myers
2. The Jung Tupology Test on Humanmetrics (free) http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
3. DISC profiles http://www.discprofile.com/whatisdisc.htm
4. Looked at career testing, such as http://www.careerpath.com/

Note:  there is no right or wrong.  With regards to careers, it is important to know what kinds of things you like to do, and also what you would be good at doing.

However, my blog isn’t about a career; it’s about your life!  As a entrepreneur/recruiter for decades, I can tell you that I see individuals every day asking themselves, “How did I get into this career path, and then settle into a lifetime of waiting to retire.”

One more suggestion to those who are nearing retirement:  check out my friend Howard Stone’s http://www.2young2retire.com/ because you are never old enough to retire—not if you live your life in crescendo!

The next blog will describe in detail what to do when you find crescendo! Stay tuned.

Goal Setting Study:

There is an urban myth about a Harvard study, debunked on line and by Fast Magazine, that the top 3% of Harvard MBA’s who wrote down their goals achieved the greatest wealth. However, Dominican University set out to test the same thesis. http://www.dominican.edu/dominicannews/study-backs-up-strategies-for-achieving-goals

Although the test was only over a four-week period, Group 5, that group that was asked to write down their goals and continuously monitors them, achieved significantly more than all other groups.

Also, the mean achievement score for Groups 2-5 (with written goals) was significantly higher than Group 1. (which wrote no goals down)

It’s Really Important to set Goals and Monitor Them!

So far we’ve discussed why live life in crescendo, and how goals can help you get there.

Next, I will be discussing how do you find your crescendo?  Does this change your path in life or augment the one you’re on?  Stay tuned.

Sorry to get academic at first, but what does Merriam-Webster say about what it means to live? (And what are my comments about it?)
Intransitive verb–
1: to be alive: have the life of an animal or plant (Congratulations—you could be a single-cell amoeba or hopefully Darwin has moved your forward)
2: to continue alive (Nice job—you haven’t died yet.)
3: to maintain oneself: subsist (Are we starting to sense a build in the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs yet?)
4a: to occupy a home: dwell (Is this the original meaning of “Occupy America?”:) )
b: to be located or stored (Unfortunately, there are those who allow themselves to be put on the great shelf of life)
5: to attain eternal life (But for now let’s focus on life here on Mother Earth)
6: to conduct or pass one’s life (You workaholics and other task-driven players know who you are!)
7: to remain in human memory or record (Yes again, but if you going to be remembered, the real question would be “for what?”)
8: to have a life rich in experience (Ah, now we’re getting closer, but define “rich”)
9: cohabit (So you can’t do it alone, is that the point here?)

Living Life in Crescendo is a “continual process of refining and redefining what you need to do in life.” So Why Live Life in Crescendo? Because the more excited you become about what you are doing each day, the more energy you draw from life.

How do I know this? Here’s a basic example, which has happened time and time again. A parent dares all odds to rescue a child in acts of superhuman strength and/or bravery. Even the Straightdope.com can’t bunk some of these tales. http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2636/supermom
In such cases, the motivation, albeit short-term, is to save the child. The energy drawn by this motivation is extraordinary. Now draw out the motivation over the course of a life. Mother Teresa is a good example of self-less commitment to aiding the poor. Where did she get her energy, and ward off disease though consistently exposed to it?

Certainly you can Google the countless articles on motivational theory, empowerment and its effect on human energy, and psychological behavior. Marshall Jones in the Nebraska Symposium is quoted as saying “Motivation has to do with how behavior gets started, is energized, is sustained, is directed, is stopped. David McClelland in his book on Human Motivation states, “Motivation has to do with the why of behavior as opposed to the how or the what. But I don’t believe I need to get anymore academic. The reality is that you know in your heart that this is true.

Scott Shane, Edwin Locke, and Christopher Collins quote in their article Entrepreneurial Motivation “When goal-directed energy is sustained over time, it is called persistence.” My next blog will guide you through the process of setting goals. TBC

Crescendo—“ Italian, from crescendo, adjective, increasing, gerund of crescere to grow, increase, from Latin”

Living Life—Now that’s the question!

The real discussion here is how do you live your life? What is your raison d’etre? (reason to exist.)  Optimists have a raison d’etre (reason to exist) or they wouldn’t be optimists. And if you have a reason to exist, then you either have an idea of what you should be and thus what you should do.

Living Life in Crescendo is a continual process of refining and redefining what you need to do in life.

So my next series of blogs will be focused on

1. Why live life in crescendo?
2. How do you find your crescendo?
3. What do you do when you find it?
4. How is it possible to keep growing in what you do?
5. What do you do when you achieve a goal, yet keep growing?

Although there have been hundreds of books written on establishing goals, let me ask a simple question. Why does no one on earth ever say, “Live life by goal setting?” To me, the reasons are clear. If you drift through life with no goals, you will surely get there, and somewhere along the way highly regret the fact that you wasted precious time here on earth. And if you march through life setting goals that aren’t motivating you in any way, then you guaranty yourself an arduous life of completing checklists, while experiencing a life devoid of joy. So Why live life in crescendo? Why not?  Stay tuned for more!

“What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.”
Dean Inge

There is true irony in the above quotes.  With regard to music, you can have some real fun with www.whosampled.com
It has over 127,000 songs and 45,000 artists and is attempting to trace their musical DNA. There are some fairly hysterical samples from Dr. Dre (1279 samples) to Jay Z (843 samples) to Kanye West (645 samples).  I can only imagine this kind of stuff keeps plenty of Intellectual Property attorneys very busy.

In this copy cat world, perhaps sampling someone else’s music shows respect for a prior song, and in our society of repetition, sampling gets more Internet hits, but I will offer the following two quotes that say it all:

“If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.”
Wilson Mizner

“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism. If you steal from two, it’s research.”
John Burke

My take on all this–TURN OFF your i-Pod and write your own stuff!

Read more:http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/plagiarism.html#ixzz1jxXnTD9j

Imagine what he would think about, hearing emerging talent like Tosin Abasi and Animals as Leaders.

Imagine if he further expanded his writing skills by writing movie soundtracks or books.

But still, it’s hard to Imagine all he did within his twenty years of unrestrained creativity as a Beatle and solo artist.

When I see bands like the FabFaux recreate great Beatles albums, I realize how special he was. I cried at the end of the LOVE review in Vegas, overpowered by sensory overload of the music, visuals, and then realizing that he and his lads created those songs over forty-five years ago in an unbelievable short stretch of time.

I just had to post this, having walked by Dakota and taking this shot of his memorial in Central Park yesterday.

Thanks again, John

Timeline—2012 and the technology is incredibly easy for anyone to record and cut an MP3 (if this sort of makes sense.) Songwriters can use Garageband to cut demos, and bands can record for a fraction of investment that it cost in yesteryear’s dollars. Therefore, it should be easier than ever to break through, correct? Wrong,

To be a star today requires catchy songwriting for sure, but typically the song is only the beginning. Are you adept at Pro Tools or Logic Pro to produce a superb demo? Who do you know from Flashpoint/Tribeca who can help you cut a video? How do you go viral on YouTube? How do you etch your brand with logos, cover art, a cool website with blogs, Facebook page, Twitter Page, and a consistent promotional campaign? And once you have been bequeathed permission to sell your songs on iTunes, Spotify or Rdio, if you’re lucky you get some gigs at bars or a slot in a festival or two.

The grand reward? You get to be an opening act on a tour, and drive a minivan from city to city for a few hundred dollars a day and a percentage of all merchandise you can hawk.

Then why do all of this? Just ask the musician—because pursuing a dream is what puts rhythm in their steps. A passionate musician will answer, “Why else get up in the morning?”

There are various disputes about who first invented the name karaoke. One claim is that Japanese musician Daisuke Inoue in Kobe, Japan invented a karaoke styled machine, in 1971. Another claim was made by Roberto del Rosario, a Filipino inventor, who developed a sing along system in 1975 and patented it in the 1980s, calling it “minus-One. Either way, as digital sampling took off, replacing tapes and CD’s, Karaoke was an easy way for bars and DJ’s to interact with the audience. Therefore, rock stars like my daughter Courtney, can shine in the Karaoke spotlight.

But long before this, she sat in with my band AirPlay as did David. Again, gig genetics is an incurable affliction—once you have the rock & roll bug, you just have to roll with it! Thank heavens for Karaoke and Howl at the Moon. And thank-you for gig genetics!

Rock on Gig Genetics, and Rock on Murley Shertz! I admire you guys.