Words Of Wisdom – Chosen Lyrics

photo credit: włodi

Song lyrics have more relevance than we give them credit for.  Music is ubiquitous, and most of it has lyrics.  Apple went into the music industry with the iPod because the market for music is basically everyone.  One of Twitter’s top trending topics is #nowplaying, which is what people use to list what they are currently listening to.  In this short interview video with President Obama, the interviewer was asking him about if there was potential to use hip hop for betterment of society.  This is done through insightful lyrics that lift listeners.  The following are some lyrics that are meaningful to me, and some commentary regarding them:

“…it’s hard gettin’ good, easy to do evil” – Akon

Just like it is much easier to lose someone’s trust, than to build it, it is easy to do bad things, but takes a lot of effort to remain in the “good” category.  Being labeled as “bad” takes a minute of doing the wrong thing, while being labeled as “good” requires setting example after example of picking the good-natured path.

Take a look at some folks who aim to stay on the path of “good”.  Even if direct attacks on them are not so visible, indirect pressure on them to give up those efforts is always there.  Good after good after good makes those who tried shortcut paths of some type look like they missed the concept, so they hope for some error or break in the good.

TV news shows don’t show much good because it is more likely to make more viewers feel bad about themselves.  This is what keeps programming on the lowest-common-denominator level, for the most part, unless there is some story of good that is too large to ignore without looking like an uninformed station.  The local inventive engineer or winning student is left out of the news, and another story about obesity is presented(not that obesity isn’t a big issue, but there is a difference between playing to the feelings of viewers and actually helping to solve the problem).

“Foolish pride is what held me together through the years…I never sat back feeling sorry for myself” – Jay-Z

These are two lines that carry a strong message from one song.  A lot of winners we know of now were not always labeled as “winners” by the populace, or at least by their current supporters, so they needed “foolish pride” to power through the period until they got that support.  Michael Jordan talked about how he always had to hear about how he was good, but not as good as some player like Magic Johnson, and so he needed this type of foolish or unfounded pride to fuel him to show everyone up.  There is always that period of time where people don’t think you have what it takes, regardless of which category you look to achieve in, and although some support can come to you, it speeds you up to provide some of your own(even if it seems foolish).

The line about not sitting back feeling sorry for yourself is another relevant one.  It is better to take come crazy action than to sit back feeling helpless or regretful.  You have to keep this in mind, and keep it easy to process.  Repeat it a few times for the next time you feel sorry for yourself in some fashion.  It is better to play your table like a drum with your hands, or fold a paper into a paper airplane, or toss a tennis ball up in the air repeatedly, than to sit in regret.  Sitting in regret is a lose-lose item as far as action and enjoyment.  Throwing a tennis ball up in the air to yourself is at least enjoyable.

“I keep my eye on the prize then pursue it, chase it like a cheetah…” – Ice Cube

A big part of the message here is about your focus.  The prize has to always be in the back of your mind for you to have the vigor to work toward it.  If you forget about it, also known as “taking your eye off of the ball”, you might be fine until when you remember the prize, and then time has gone by already.  Reminding yourself of the prize or prizes every day is one of the only ways to keep focus.  Find me a person who works hard without thinking of the impending results or rewards, and I will show you a talking walnut.

When you not only chase your prize, but chase it with the speed of a cheetah, you have a real chance of attaining it.  Chasing your prize slowly brings a lot of small problems to you along the way.  Depending on how slowly you chase it, people will start to present doubt of your achievement potential into your own mind.  If some big company throws a networking conference every year, and decides to slow down their marketing efforts by instead throwing one every two years, loads of people will start to comment about how the company is losing speed, ability, or vigor.  That never helps.  The quicker your pace, the less you have to deal with what I call “unsupport”, and once you cross the “tipping point” of achievement, the lack of support won’t matter much.

“There’s only two types of people in the world, the ones that entertain and the ones that observe” – Britney Spears

I don’t think this lyric could be any more of a call-to-action.  I can’t imagine many folks hear or read it and want to join the side of the observers.  It’s hard to envision a biography being written about someone who always observed others, and who didn’t contribute in their own fashion.  If Britney Spears didn’t continue her musical creations and tours, and was just a “fan” on various artists pages on MySpace, this lyric wouldn’t even be hers to present.

The bar for creation should be set much lower than we usually first think.  We assume that our creations have to be spectacular, so we don’t even get started, because we don’t see ourselves making something spectacular; at the same time, someone else doesn’t care if they make something spectacular, and starts making things, and eventually gets the experience needed to make something spectacular.  If you need to remember it this way, low-quality creations trump uncreated creations.

I can show that doing something is better than doing nothing.  When you do nothing, out of worry of being attacked, you get no attacks on you, but you also have gone nowhere.  It is like putting nothing in a pot and cooking it.  An hour later, you have a heated nothing.  On the other hand, when you do something, some people will support you, and some will attack you, but at least you now have more support that you didn’t have earlier.  Attacks can be ignored, but support can’t be self-generated.

Do you have any lyrics that are powerful to you that you would like to mention?  You can point them out in a comment, and then maybe let us know what the lyrics mean to you.

Tagged as: creating, focus, good, lyrics, music, pride