Becoming The Boss
This is a true story.
I was at a Bruce Springsteen concert a few years ago where he shared this story:
Both his parents worked and were always busy. They didn’t have the money for childcare or babysitters, so they would leave toddler Bruce with his granny. His granny, in turn, would leave him to his own devices and considerable mischief. One of his devilish acts was staying up and watching TV until 3 a.m. (when the TV signal gave out back in the ‘50s). This continued for most of his toddler years; he would sleep at 3 a.m. and wake up at 1–2 p.m. This schedule became so ingrained in him that when it came time for school at age 7, adjusting to a ‘normal’ schedule felt like entering an upside-down world. Let’s just say the Boss never took to schooling. But then something happened when he was 12–13. He went to his first gig and realised that musicians don’t belong in the upside-down. Their schedules are in the real world, meaning they stay up till 3 a.m. and wake up at 12–1 p.m.
Hunter S. Thompson was just 20 when he wrote a profoundly wise letter to a friend who was lost and seeking direction. The crux of his advice boils down to not designing our lives to the demands of a goal but to a way of life. We do not strive to be doctors, bankers, engineers, etc.; we strive to be ourselves. We must make the goal conform to the individual rather than the individual conform to the goal. The goal is secondary; it’s the functioning toward the goal that is important. A person must function in a pattern of their own choosing, for to let another person define your goals is to give up on one of the most meaningful aspects of life, the definitive act of will that makes an individual.
Bruce, in choosing to become a musician, was able to bend the universe to his will. Of course, it wasn’t just his sleep schedule. Two incidents so galvanised the young Bruce that music (though not necessarily being a musician) embedded itself into his imagination. These were seeing Elvis and the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show when he was 7 and 14, respectively. This embedded a visceral sense of what he wanted to be. It was only at age 14 that he bought himself his first beat-up guitar and tried to teach himself to play. He would go to school dances but would not dance. He would stand on the sidelines and watch the lead guitarist play, then go home and practise the riffs. He started a band and played at every venue that would have him. He did that for close to 10 years until ‘Born to Run’ put him on the cover of Time and Newsweek magazine in the same week.
Beware of looking for goals: look for a way of life. Decide how you want to live and then see what you can do to make a living WITHIN that way of life.”
— Hunter S. Thompson
Rahul Soans is the founder of The Disruptive Business Network , a community that challenges usual work practices to find deeper passion and meaning in work. We share these ideas through events, podcasts, and courses. To join our newsletter please subscribe here
