How Songwriting Encourages Risk-Taking in Innovation
Innovation, by definition, is all about bringing something new and different into the world. On top of that, innovation requires a willingness to explore alternate approaches and ideas when the current ones might be working perfectly well. This will feel undoubtedly risky. Honoring our innate curiosity and creativity often means stepping outside of our comfort zones and taking those risks. Songwriting is a medium that, much like innovation, teaches us to embrace risk-taking in service of continuous improvement and growth. I’ve listed a few ways that writing songs encourages us to take the risks essential to the innovative process.
Break Through Mental Barriers
I’ll admit that, still, after having written over a thousand songs, there’s a slight tremor of fear every time I sit down to write. Given that we’re all a bit uncertain if not a little afraid of things we don’t know, how do we get past that barrier? Songwriting holds the key in that it’s designed to tell a story. Once you begin to tell your story (whether it’s a new song or an innovative idea), it’s easier to push past your initial reluctance and do the work. In other words, when we’re faced with something new or unconventional, simply beginning to express ourselves can be the impetus to take those first steps into the unknown.
Push Creative Limits
Early on in my songwriting career, when a collaborator would suggest an idea I wasn’t comfortable with, I would reject it out of hand. But as I grew as a creative, I began to acknowledge that just because it wasn’t the way I would do it didn’t mean it wasn’t right for the song. In the same way, it can help to think of innovation as a place where new ideas exist and if we’re open to them we’ll be better positioned to grow and improve in spite of the perceived risks.
Embrace Failure
Despite my best efforts, not everything I write is great. While, of course, this was disappointing in the early stages of my songwriting career, the critical lesson I learned was to get over it and keep writing. The moment I realized that not everything had to be perfect, my real career began. I became focused on approaching my work as a continuous process of improvement where the day-to-day effort and output far outweighed the need for any one song to be a hit. Innovation is about experimentation and not about early perfection. The sooner we can embrace the fact that not all experiments work and that failure is simply a part of the process, the faster we can get to the important work of innovating effectively.
Conclusion
Learning to write songs, especially for those of us who have careers outside of the arts, is a perfect analog to the kind of risk-taking required for innovation. It’s a willingness to do something that is uncomfortable in the short term with the understanding that the long-term rewards will far outweigh the risks inherent in becoming a beginner again. Innovation requires this kind of awareness and, for me, songwriting is the perfect way to orient myself and others towards risk-taking with a purpose.
Bio
Cliff Goldmacher is a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, music producer and author with recording studios in Nashville, TN and Middle River, MD. Through his studios, Cliff provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual, live access to Nashville’s best session musicians and studio vocalists for their songwriting demos. Find out more. You can also download Cliff’s FREE tip sheet “A Dozen Quick Fixes To Instantly Improve Your Songs.”
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