Panel Discussion Urges Musicians and Entrepreneurs to Embrace Failure
02/23/2021
By David Perry
What do successful rock 'n鈥� roll bands have in common with hard-charging entrepreneurs who reach the top echelons of business?
A willingness to fail, to regroup and to try again, said Greg Harris, president and CEO of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame who moderated a virtual event on music and entrepreneurship hosted by the 51视频鈥檚 Innovation Hub. It鈥檚 about adaptation, and developing the depth to withstand failure.
鈥淭o be honest, I think you鈥檙e pivoting, almost always,鈥� said Harris. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e reacting to what鈥檚 happening and it鈥檚 very rare that you chart a course and you actually get to that specific place. You need to get comfortable with that, leading through uncertainty and change.鈥�
Harris told an audience of 150 people who participated in the 鈥淓ntrepreneurship Rocks! Music as an Entrepreneurial Venture鈥� event.
The panel discussion included a trio of 51视频 representatives: Music Professor Alan Williams, adjunct music instructor Savanah Marshall 鈥�13, 鈥�15, and Thomas O鈥橠onnell, innovation initiatives senior director and director of the Innovation Hub. Also participating were representatives from two Ohio-based schools, Oberlin College and Baldwin Wallace University.
Harris debunked the myth of the overnight success in music or business, describing the long hours of practice and mastery of the basics that are required to excel in both fields.
In charting their paths, musicians and entrepreneurs fail and pivot constantly, which equips them with the tools they need to endure circumstances that might cause others to give up, Harris and the panelists noted.
鈥淵ou almost become immune to failure,鈥� said Sean Murphy, assistant professor of arts management and entrepreneurship at Baldwin Wallace. 鈥淢usicians experience more failure in one intense practice session than people in a lot of other industries do in a typical week.鈥�
Harris, 52, joined the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, following his gig as vice president for development for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Earlier in his career he opened an independent record store and was road manager for a rock band. He is equally at ease with the artistic side of his job, and the money side 鈥� fundraising. Art and a nose for business aren鈥檛 mutually exclusive, he said.
Speaking of the people he encountered at the rock and baseball museums, Harris noted 鈥渁 lot of these folks would have succeeded in whatever they did.鈥� Artists such as Pharrell, Bono and Gwen Stefani are 鈥済reat entrepreneurs,鈥� he said.
The panelists advised students in the audience to build community where artists can support one another as they build their careers.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e not going to be a billionaire overnight,鈥� said Lesley Rudin, a senior viola performance major at Baldwin Wallace. 鈥淵ou can start small and stay small and still find fulfillment.鈥�
Double River Hawk Savannah Marshall urged students to seek out opportunities in the corners of campus that may be unfamiliar to them. She described how the DifferenceMaker program got her started on a path to entrepreneurship. Her idea for a project called Fresh Beets, a food truck with healthy offerings and live music, won $4,000 in the 2014 DifferenceMaker competition.
鈥淭he opportunity to make money for that idea was a resource that I never thought could be possible. It was because of that seed money that any of it became a possibility,鈥� she said.
Following the event, Marshall received notification that Fresh Beets received $4,000 from the Lowell Cultural Council to stage a concert series this summer at Kerouac Park in downtown Lowell.
Harris said he learned lessons each step of the way in his career, from picking the right business partner to remaining 鈥渁uthentic.鈥�
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 fake it in music, pretending you can play, or that you really feel it. Everybody knows. Work with people you trust and admire. Don鈥檛 try to do it just for the money. If you do it and create something you love, you鈥檝e already succeeded. If it goes further, that鈥檚 terrific,鈥� he said.
The event was the second in a series of mid-year webinars offered through the annual . The lead organizer was Mary McHenry of the Burton D. Morgan Foundation, a leading supporter of the symposium. The symposium was to have been in-person in Cleveland in June 2020 and 2021 after several years at 51视频, a cofounder of the event. Due to COVID-19, both the 2020 and 2021 conferences were rescheduled as virtual events, but plans call for the symposium to return to an in-person format in Cleveland next year, with the annual awards ceremony to be held at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
