Are You Making Music?

by Sean Purcell

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

I recently attended a birthday party with my two beautiful boys (yes they are the most beautiful boys in the world and no, I am not biased).  The birthday guest of honor received a great many gifts and it was lots of fun.  Save for one interesting observation… an odd note that just might reflect a growing problem many agents face in real estate.  But I am ahead of myself.

In particular, the boys all gathered around a video game (I think it is called Guitar Hero) that comes with drums and a guitar.  You put the DVD in and the TV provides music and a video while the boys watch a visual cue telling them when to strum a chord or bang a drum.  Anyway, they all jumped in and so did I.  (Little kid at heart still…)

Now here is the interesting part.  I did well at that game. I did well because of my athleticism.  I still have very good eye-hand coordination and I pick things up pretty quickly.  In hindsight, maybe that is not so interesting.  But let me add this: I am completely tone deaf and possess no rhythm whatsoever.  My ex-wife used to laugh at me when I clapped my hands or tapped my foot along to some song.  Apparently I was never on the beat.  I tried to tell her I was keeping with the “back beat”… but she wasn’t buying.  In any case, I was the source for a good deal of amusement.  Now imagine: a guy with no beat excelling at a game involving music.

(Stay with me because I am going to tie this all together in a moment.)  A day or two later, I catch an episode of Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels on cable.  If you have not seen this you are missing out on insights from one of the greatest marketers of our time.  In this particular episode Gene’s son, along with some friends, challenge Gene to this very same video game… and kick his rock & roll butt.  Gene decides this is not right.  So he calls his buddies Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer (yes, those are the actual members of the band KISS) and together they challenge the kids again.  The kids even agree to use a KISS song on the DVD.

Guess what?  That’s right – the kids beat Gene Simmons and his KISS band mates in a game based on a song made famous by KISS!  How is this possible?  They lost a game playing computerized instruments to their own music.  You see the problem now, right?  The computer game is about music, but does not capture the essence of music itself.  I can learn to bang on a drum because I have great eye-hand coordination.  The kids can learn to beat the game through sheer repetition.  But not a one of us is making music.

You see, you can be someone who masters online networking, social media marketing, blogging and whatever other computerized instrument you might find out there.  Or, you can be Jeff Brown: the Mozart of investment advice.  You can be Brian Brady: the Elvis Presley of marketing.  You can be Russell Shaw: the Rolling Stones of listings.  Just remember this: in the end, to be an actual musician, you have got to get in front of people and you have got to play music.  I think it was Beethoven who said: “You have got to sit down at the piano and skin some cats.”