Anything You Want

This is just one of many options

I used to take voice lessons from a great teacher named Warren Senders.

For each lesson, I'd bring in one song I was trying to improve.

First, I'd sing it for him as written.

Then he'd say, “OK, now do it up an octave.”

“Uh... up an octave? But I can't sing that high!”

“I don't care! Do it anyway! Go! One... two... three... four...”

I'd sing the whole song again, in screeching squeaking falsetto, sounding like an

undead  cartoon  mouse.  But  by  the  second  half  of  the  song,  it  was  almost

charming.

Then he'd say, “OK, now do it down an octave.”

“Down an octave? But I don't think I can!”

“Doesn't matter! Go! One... two... three... four...”

I sounded like a garbage disposal or lawn mower, but he made me sing the whole

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song that way.

Then  he'd  make  me  sing  it  twice  as  fast.  Then  twice  as  slow.  Then  like  Bob

Dylan. Then like Tom Waits. Then he'd tel me to sing it like it's 4 a.m.

and a friend woke me up. And then he'd give me many other scenarios.

After al of this, he'd say, “Now... how did that song go again?”

It was the clearest proof that what I thought was “the” way the song went was

real y just one of an infinite number of options.

I'm taking an entrepreneurship class now. I've never studied business before.

We  analyzed  a  business  plan  for  a  mail-order  pantyhose  company.  Like  al

business plans, it proposed only one plan.

After  reading  the  whole  thing,  I  felt  like  saying  things  my  old  voice  teacher

would have said:

“OK, make a plan that requires only $1000. Go!”

“Now make a plan for ten times as many customers. Go!”

“Now do it without a website. Go!”

“Now make al your initial assumptions wrong, and have it work anyway. Go!”

“Now show how you would franchise it. Go!”

You  can't  pretend  there's  only  one  way  to  do  it.  Your  first  idea  is  just  one  of

many  options.  No  business  goes  as  planned,  so  make  ten  radical  y  different

plans.

Same thing with your current path in life:

Now you're living in New York City, obsessed with success. Go!

Now you're a free spirit, backpacking around Thailand. Go!

Now you're a confident extrovert and everyone loves you. Go!

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Now you're married and your kids are your life. Go!

Now you spend a few years in relative seclusion, reading and walking. Go!