It is extremely tough to replicate the same level of super-success, over and over again. Sometimes, this kind of success also makes it tough for someone to move forward as they are constantly reminded of it and they get trapped trying to replicate it.
There is a band called Korn.
Their music may not be to your liking.
I was a fan of their music when I was younger and back in the 90s, they pioneered a form of rock called nu-metal which is basically a mix of hard rock, hip hop, and grunge.
Though I don’t listen to their music much these days, they are back in the news for the release of their latest album ‘The Nothing’.
Given the fast and furious lives the band members led and the kind of music that they play, it’s nothing short of a miracle that they are alive, creating music, and still a viable entity.
They achieved a breakthrough with their 1998 album Follow the Leader, which catapulted them to global fame.
After tasting mega-success, their star was on the wane and they put out a few lukewarm albums.
During that time, I recall reading an interview of the band and something the lead singer Jonathan Davis said has stuck with me all these years later. When asked why the band was trying to experiment with their sound instead of sticking to what made them popular, he said: “The fans wanted us to make the same record over and over again.”
When anyone has a long enough career, it’s easy to pinpoint a period when they were at their peak. No one produces their best work every single day of their lives.
But the quest to recreate that same work, that same magic, remains.
This can sometimes pose problems.
In the 90s, Sachin Tendulkar was at his peak. He was young and his style of play was attacking. Then time took its toll. Stints at captaincy, a career-threatening tennis elbow injury, all of these made him alter his game in a bid to lengthen his career. But fans wanted the old and carefree Tendulkar who threw caution to the wind and hit the ball in the air, a shot he stopped playing in the latter half of his career.
Pace bowlers lose speed as they age but that doesn’t mean they’re less valuable. They can add variations to their bowling to be more effective as it is impossible for them to bowl at the same speed if they are to have reasonably long careers. If a bowler is constantly trying to recreate speeds at which they bowled when they were younger, their bodies will fall apart.
This isn’t just limited to the world of sport where we want our favorite stars to play like they are forever young.
A band releases a new album but the crowd heckles them for them to play their hit songs.
A CEO is constantly asked when they will repeat the success of a hit product.
An actor trying to do diverse roles is constantly reminded of the role that made them famous.
The problem is that it is extremely tough to replicate the same level of super-success, over and over again. Sometimes, this kind of success also makes it tough for someone to move forward as they are constantly reminded of it and they get trapped trying to replicate it.
VH1 had this show that dissected what went into making some of the most seminal albums of all time. In this segment, they went behind the scenes of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers seminal 1991 breakthrough ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’. After seeing the show, you will still not be able to pinpoint the reasons behind how they managed to create something so magical.
The same applies to every piece of work that matters. There is some story, inspiration, process, and timing behind it that just cannot be replicated every time.
A massive hit, a wildly successful album, a memorable inning, a stunning product — all of these involve numerous things coming together to create a moment of magic. Trying to constantly replicate that is futile.
I call it getting caught in the image of your best work.
That’s why a client showing you a wildly popular video they like and asking you to create something similar isn’t very sensible. It’s been done. If you do something similar, you might always copy what is already there.
You can see this behavior play itself out in social media. A video or photo gets a number of likes and from then on, the aim is to get the same number of likes, or even more, for every post. If there was a formula for mega success, everyone would have followed it and everyone would have been rich, popular and super-successful.
This shouldn’t be confused with not constantly improving and innovating. Every product manager wants their product to break sales records, every athlete wants to win gold, every bowler wants to run through the batting line-up.
If you’re constantly wondering if what you’re going to create can replicate some past success you might have had, you will dither in your efforts because you will always feel that it’s not good enough.
A better option is to instill a set of practices that increase the odds of you creating something good. If U2 had decided that The Joshua Tree was their best work, they would have broken up after that and lived off the royalties.
Stephen Covey had this lovely quote: ‘Live your life in crescendo, not diminuendo.’
Diminuendo means to lessen or reduce in force, the opposite of crescendo, which means to gradually increase in force.
The quote basically translates to live as if your best work is still ahead of you.
I think it’s a better way to go through life instead of beating yourself up into a frenzy, trying to replicate some success that you have already experienced.
