Jazz, Startups, and Chaos

I grew up around jazz. My Grandfather owned a jazz club in Tokyo. I was a jazz piano major at a small arts school in Seattle, and though it ultimately wasn’t for me, my childhood was jazz. By the time I was 12, I playing with professional musicians at the Ballard Bait and Tackle live venue in Seattle. I sometimes ponder what would have happened had I not moved to Tokyo a year later that disrupted all of my lessons. That’s jazz is it not? By the age of 12-13, one might know the basic melody of life and my Tokyo years were playing off the melody. It wasn’t sheet music that was handed to everyone around me. It was a left hand built around scribbled chord progressions and the synergy from the room. Tokyo was “you learned enough about life, now go explore the world solo.” And speaking of solos, there were those too in jazz. Those were prompted by a simple look or nod. Jazz has a lot to do with risks and living in the moment. With music in general, so much is built around the room. If the audience is feeling it, you’re in for a wonderful night. If not, you very well may want to slink off stage to never appear again. There are plenty of articles on UX and startups, but many of them are like sheet music. I’m here to give another angle; that the successful startups are the ones who played off the melody, broke the rules, and were unafraid of experimentation.