Your Music and Business

Business is creative. Business is arts.

Picture Lou Reed, legendary musician and artist. In the 1960s, Andy Warhol challenged him: write a song a day. Lou took it seriously. Hundreds of songs later, some became hits that shaped rock history. But the key wasn’t instant brilliance. It was experimentation. Iteration. Refinement.

Creating a business model is no different.

Start with an idea. Any idea. Don’t expect prefection. Scribble it down like rough song lyrics. Move fast. Break it apart. Try again. As Paris Thomas says, “You’re only 2-3 iterations away” (inspired by Alexander Osterwalder). Each draft, each rough, incomplete thought, gets you closer to something great.

But here’s the trick: you can’t just sit in isolation perfecting your concept. As Steve Blank preaches: “Get out of the building.” Why? Because the real answers aren’t in your head or your office. They’re in the world. Release your rough draft, your business “demo-tape”, and see how people react.

You’ll learn more from ten minutes of raw, unfiltered feedback than months of internal theorizing. Do people light up when they see your idea? Or do they scratch their heads?

It’s like playing your new track to an audience. You might think the chorus is brilliant, but the crowd zones out. They cheer for something else entirely. A small riff you barely noticed. That’s your gold. Double down on it. Iterate. Experiment. Share. Learn.

David Heinemeier Hansson sums it up perfectly: “You’re better off with a kick-ass half than a half-assed whole.” Focus on what works. Strip away the excess. It doesn’t need to be perfect. It needs to resonate.

Iteration is not failure. It’s evolution. Lou Reed didn’t write “Perfect Day” overnight. He wrote many imperfect days first.

Your business hit is out there. Keep experimenting. Keep sharing. Keep learning.