All of my education and experience has been in the corporate world, in business.
But my hobby, my passion, all my life has been music.
And I am convinced that these great virtuoso musicians that
are touring the world have a lot to teach us as
business leaders.
This is a word that is mostly used in the arts and particularly in music.
This is a concept and a word that perfectly applies to the
business world.
I found out that when musicians do three things, they get
this standing ovation.
Those three conditions are, number one, that they have and follow a method
that will allow them to play their instruments with mastery in an
extraordinary way.
If somebody wants to learn the piano, every day, they have to sit on the piano
and do a series of exercises like scales.
And every day you have to sit on the piano and do these exercises
over and over again, because that’s the only way you’re going to
get better and get to play the piano in an extraordinary way.
There are no shortcuts.
Okay, and what we’re going to do is we’re all going to sing it together. Okay?
Funny.
So I spoke about going out of your comfort zones.
We’re going to get out of our comfort zones today. Let’s do it.
Oh.
1,400 people here, and this is like a few cats.
Where’s the magnanimity? Please do it very loud.
Help me. Oh.
Oh.
Some of you are out of tune.
And being in tune is very important, both in music
and in business.
Condition number two is that they assume the right attitudes on the
stage. We can do what we do with excellence in an
extraordinary way, but if on top of that, we do it with the right attitude,
that excellence is amplified.
What’s your music like? I am convinced that the
attitudes that we assume in life can be related to music.
It’s like if each one of us has a speaker here, and all the time, we are projecting
this music that denotes our attitude.
So sometimes you work with someone that it’s really nice to work with them, things
flow, things get done quickly, you have fun, people
laugh, there’s humor, there’s joy.
You can almost listen to something like
.
But other times, you meet with someone in a meeting, and they introduce you to, I
don’t know, Charles. And you say, “Hey, Charles, how are you?
Nice to meet you.” And Charles looks at you and says,
“Hello, Felipe.”
“How can I help you today?”
We feel so sad.
You almost want to cry.
Attitude is an amplifier of excellence because it works both
ways. We can still do what we do in an extraordinary way,
but if we do it with the wrong attitude, all of that excellence is going to be
shadowed, and it’s going to become invisible.
And the third condition that they must comply with is that regardless
of what they play, they have to do it with passion and with love.
And this is what truly creates an emotional bond between the
artist
and his or her audience.
I’m going to play the theme of “Cinema Paradiso” on the piano twice.
The first time, I’m going to play it as if I was
ChatGPT 4.0.
The second time, I’m going to, again, honor every note that he
put on the score, but I’m going to play it as Felipe Gomez trying to put all of the
passion, all of the love, all of the energy, everything into it, and you
tell me if it sounds different or not.
When you see the movie or see a performance, it sounds completely different, and
their difference is in the passion, in the love, in the
heart.
This should sound more something
like this.
Thank you.
Only the people that are passionate about what they do, and they do it with
love, are the people that every day ask themselves,
“How can I do this better?” Just as Beethoven said, “To play the wrong
unforgivable.”
Many of us
in this room are leaders. Let us be a
light so that others may shine. We’re going to sing. Okay?
This is going to be really beautiful. Ready? Let’s do it.
Oh.
