Adele: Lessons On Achieving Success

On October 15, 2021, Adele's new single 'Easy on Me' became Spotify's most-streamed song in a single day.  Releasing her first song in six years, Adele has shown that her star shines brightly as ever.

Adele's album 25 achieved diamond status - 10 million copies sold.  This is a remarkable achievement in an era where many consider the album format to be almost extinct as people purchase or stream songs instead.  Many albums take years to go platinum 10 times but Adele did it in less than a year.  What was the last album to reach diamond status?  It was Adele's own 21 with 14 million copies sold.  Expect her new album to match these heights.

 Unlike other singers, she uses her band, her voice and a cup of tea as a backdrop.  It definitely shows how you don't always need fancy lights and a cast of thousands when you let you talent shine through.

What Lessons Can Be Learned?

1) Be Yourself And Let Your Talent Speak For Itself

Adele began singing at age four and hasn't looked back since.  For her, it was about the music and the performance and not the glitz or glamour.  She sings without back-up dancers or an overwhelming display of pyrotechnics.  She can easily sell out arenas without needing an elaborate stage show or a dozen costume changes.

Adele simply needs to be honest and to be herself.  She doesn't feel the need to maintain a perfect body image or to do anything outrageous.  Nobody believes that she needs to do those things and as she remarked, "That’s my worst fear: people not believing me,”.

She definitely doesn't need any props or to sing on a horse.  That's not to see that every singer should have the same minimal approach but make sure that you have the basic talent to have success in your field.  Make sure there is steak along with the sizzle.

Katy Perry has an elaborate stage show but she also has the talent to go along with it.  If you wish to be a successful singer or artist or even a successful business person, make sure you have the training and the talent.  This will take some hard work but there has to be a solid foundation to anyone's success.

2) Sometimes Less Exposure is More

Her last album '21' sold 30 million copies worldwide but she only released 3 singles and two videos. After the success of the album, she stayed out of the limelight and only came out to record and sing the James Bond song 'Skyfall'.  Even then, she did not appear in the video although she did perform at the Oscar ceremony.  Her interview this past week with i-D Magazine was her first in 3 years.  In these days of countless talk shows and numerous online entertainment sites, that's quite an accomplishment.

In this age of social media, there's a fine line between being overexposed and leaving the pubic wanting more.  Kim Kardashian does not leave people wanting more but there is still an insatiable demand for her and her family, for the time being.  How long will it last until it burns out?  Nobody knows.

Adele, with her talent, has set herself up for a truly long career.  It wouldn't be surprising if she's still this popular when she's in her seventies, like a Barbra Streisand.  We can all definitely enjoy her singing but we can also learn some lessons in success from her remarkable and inspiring story!

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Lamborghini and Federal Express: Two Inspirational Start-up Stories

A previous article dealt with the stories of how some companies such as Pez and Gillette had their origins.  Here is the story of two more companies - Lamborghini, dealing with the world of exotic sports cars, and Federal Express, which pioneered overnight delivery.

Ferruccio Lamborghini had humble beginnings, being born to grape farmers in Italy in 1916.  It was his passion for mechanics as opposed to farming that led to his eventual wealth and fame.

 Lamborghini was more interested in machinery than grapes.  He studied mechanics at a technical institute and served as a mechanic for the Italian army in Rhodes during the Second World War.
After the war, he became quite wealthy as a manufacturer of tractors thanks to his background in farming and mechanics.

Had the story ended there, it would have been a nice tale about how a man born to farmers became successful and wealthy selling tractors.  However, only people who dealt with tractors would have known his name.

It so happened that Lamborghini had another passion.  As a young man, tractors were fine to get the farming jobs done but they obviously weren't very exciting.  He used his mechanical gifts to tinker with cars and turn them into roaring speedsters.  He started with small Fiats and then turned to Mercedes-Benzes, Jaguars and Maseratis.  It was much more fun to race speedsters than to drive a tractor across a field.

It was his Ferrari automobiles that sparked Lamborghini into starting up his own sports car brand.  He always had problems with the clutch on his Ferraris when driving fast and the repairs done by Ferrari technicians never worked.  He was so angry that he eventually complained to Enzo Ferrari himself, who retorted, 'Stick to your tractors and leave sports cars to the experts'.

The rest is history.  Lamborghini went by the principle that if you want to do something right, you should do it yourself.  He also knew that profits were much higher with exotic sports cars rather than tractors and the product was a lot more glamorous!

He combined his passion and his expertise to create the Lamborghini sports car and become a household name.  Had Enzo Ferrari been more polite, Ferruccio Lamborghini may have never built sports cars but it sometimes takes conflict to spark the passion that leads to new ventures.

Who would have thought that a tractor company would eventually produce a sports car that would be enjoyed by the likes of Floyd Mayweather, George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Cristiano Ronaldo?  It shows that anything can happen when your dreams are unlimited and you put in the work to match those dreams.

Fred Smith used his passion for flying as a basis for a start-up that became Federal Express.  He attended Yale University in the early 1960's and wrote a paper for an economics class that touted the model of using specialized air transport to deliver packages.   This flew in the face of the current system at the time which used trucks, rail or passenger airplanes.  Fred Smith later said that his paper got a 'C' from the professor but he kept hold of the idea.

His goal was to start a company that used its own airplanes.  These planes could deliver goods much more quickly than relying on airlines which put their own passengers first and has their own schedule.  As the saying goes, "Time is money."  

Using Fred Smith's system, his company combined both air and ground transport under its own umbrella.   Packages and goods were picked up from the sender and transported to the recipient exclusively on Federal Express planes and vehicles .  This was much more efficient than sending packages to a regular airport and waiting for the first plane that had room to take on such items.  The old system meant that the courier had no control over the air transport.  The new system put this into the hands of the company and increased both efficiency and reliability.

This led to the famous slogan:

Fred Smith was such a believer in Federal Express in the early days that he went to Las Vegas when the company was down to its last $5,000 and gambled it all at the blackjack tables.  He won $27,000 and this kept the company afloat by paying its overdue fuel bill.  This method of raising funds is definitely not recommended but it did allow the company to become what it is today.

Ferruccio Lamborghini had humble origins but used his knowledge and passions to create one of the most famous sports car brands in the world.  Fred Smith used his passion and background in flying to start a company that revolutionized express delivery and became the largest such company in the world.  It is through such efforts that many of today's corporations had their start.  Make sure that you follow your passions and use your expertise since you never know where they can lead.

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"The Medium Is The Message": It's Not Just What You Say...

Canadian philosopher and noted public figure Marshal Mcluhan coined the phrase 'The medium is the message' in his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.

According to the entry in Wikipedia, "McLuhan proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study."

What Does It Mean?

Here is one way to look at it:

It's your friend's birthday.  How do you plan to wish him a Happy Birthday?  

The message is 'Happy Birthday'.

The medium determines how good a friend that person is.

There are different ways (or types of medium) to wish him Happy Birthday.

* You send a Facebook greeting - you post on his wall 'Happy Birthday'.

* You send a text saying 'Happy Birthday'.

* You give him a phone call to wish him a Happy Birthday.

* You drive to his house and wish him 'Happy Birthday ' in person.

* You drive to his house with Adele.  You moved heaven and earth to get Adele to sing Happy Birthday in person to him!

A text birthday greeting - very casual friend.

An Adele birthday greeting - best friend of all time!

The message 'Happy Birthday' is the same - the medium is the important part.



Another Example

A man wants to wish his wife a Happy Anniversary.

If he merely sends a text wishing 'Happy Anniversary" - big trouble!

If he hires Rod Stewart to serenade her 'Happy Anniversary' - out-of-the-world reaction.

If he says 'Happy Anniversary' with a kiss and flowers - also a very happy medium.

The same concept works with a marriage proposal.  A marriage proposal on bended knee with an expensive diamond ring or proclaimed on a scoreboard at a Major League baseball game is a lot different than a text message saying "Will you marry me?".

What Is The Message?

Pay attention to the medium.  In business, how a message is conveyed is the same as what the message actually is.  It works the same in social media.  A Tweet is different than a blog entry which is different from a Google+ update.

And so on.

Of course, a lot has been written about 'The medium is the message' in much greater detail than in this blog.

This blog was merely a medium!

So, listen to the message but also pay attention to the medium.


Steven Ratnik


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