The Extraordinary Will Take Care of Itself

Notes from this week

This past week, I came across two gems that I can’t not share.

One is a story from record producer Jimmy Iovine. The other is a poem I found in Bill Gurley’s book, Running Down a Dream.

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On David Senra’s podcast, he interviews the legendary producer Jimmy Iovine. At one point Senra says something interesting to him:

“Every single person I’ve read about who worked with you says the same thing. You want Jimmy in the room because he’ll tell you the truth.”

Senra then retells a story from Bruce Springsteen’s autobiography Born to Run. Springsteen had spent two years recording The River. At one point he invited Iovine over to listen to the finished album. After a full double album, when the final track ended, Iovine said one sentence.

“So when are you going to record the vocals?”

The vocals were already there, but they were buried in the mix. Springsteen agreed, and the team went back and remixed the entire album.

Jimmy Iovine was still in his twenties at the time. He had already worked with John Lennon, but he was still a young man sitting in a room with artists whose reputations were far bigger than his own.

Senra asked him where that confidence came from, and Iovine’s answer was surprising:

“My father really drilled into me from when I was a little kid that wherever you go, the place is better because you’re there, because you’re a decent person. He used to say, ‘You’re a humble person, you’re a decent person, you’re a good person, and you’re not going to screw anybody.’”

“So wherever I went in my life, I always felt comfortable.”

It’s such a simple idea: help your child build the confidence to feel like they belong in every room they’re in, and that they have something to contribute. But his father didn’t fill him with false confidence by making him believe he was brilliant or extraordinary. The cost of entry is to show up, humbly and decently.

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It’s funny that I listened to this podcast in the same week I came across this poem in Bill Gurley’s brilliant book.

Do Not Ask Your Children To Strive
by William Martin

Do not ask your children
to strive for extraordinary lives.
Such striving may seem admirable,
but it is the way of foolishness.
Help them instead to find the wonder
and the marvel of an ordinary life.
Show them the joy of tasting
tomatoes, apples and pears.
Show them how to cry
when pets and people die.
Show them the infinite pleasure
in the touch of a hand.
And make the ordinary come alive for them.
The extraordinary will take care of itself.