I recently read the memoir by Richard Russell, founder of XL Recordings, home of The Prodigy, Radiohead, Adele, The White Stripes, The XX, and countless other divergent cross-overs who changed mainstream music. The book concludes with a reflection, that for much of his career, Richard was driven by ego, and, that it worked. Wanting more for himself, for his artists, for his label, led to XL’s unique success.
Only later did he realize that by immersing himself in the craft (in his case, actually becoming a producer/artist) did he find the most happiness, and hence the book's title “Liberation Through Hearing." He attributes that switch with the most empowerment for his artists, his staff, and the some of the biggest successes on the label.
A day or two after reading that concluding chapter, I happened to read an essay called “Grip Strength” that describes the documentary “Comedian,” which follows Jerry Seinfeld and a younger up-and-coming comedian. The up-and-comer wants success so badly it hurts. He’s hungry. He’s comparing his success, or lack thereof, to his friends on Wall Street. He is frustrated by not getting what is coming to him. 20 years post-documentary, that comedian ultimately did not make it. Meanwhile, Seinfeld is quoted on his single criterion for success: "are you still working?" If you are, you've made it. If you have stopped, you're a failure.” The essay concludes:
“graspingness is not causative to greatness. It's somewhat incredible that the top 10% in the world have to completely white knuckle it at the cost of their well-being and sanity but the very best are totally effortless”
A throughline of both stories is that there is one source of motivation that outlasts others, and produces better results, and that is love of the craft.
This clicked for me even more when a colleague sent me Federer talking about “the myth of effortlessness.” In his speech, he diffs gift vs. grit, explaining that anything that appears effortless is usually the result of a ton of hard work. His point is that gift can get you so far, but for exceptional outcomes, you have to put in the work. I agree, but that is not the whole story.
A lot of highly gifted and hard working people embark in their careers grasping for success in the form of financial outcomes or social validation. Early in one’s career these motivations tend to dominate, and that makes sense. They are unlocks, and putting in hard work to achieve them can produce good results.
But as the authors wager, I believe the best outcomes come from the effortlessness that comes not only from hard work, but hard work that is motivated by love of the craft.
In my current world of venture capital, some of the best are those who keep at it decade after decade because they don’t want to stop. Fred Wilson, as one example, is Seinfeld’s definition of success. You can sense a similar dynamic for some of the most successful founder-led companies, like the Collisons at Stripe, or Toby at Shopfiy. And of course there are many examples in sports (Jordan, Lebron), and many more in Music, Fashion, Film and other creative fields.
So my quippy summary is that the best outcomes are not really gift vs. grit, they’re love vs. grip. You really have to love it.