The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur

February 21Cumulative Rhythm

The rhyme and uniformity of perfect poems show the free growth of metrical laws, and bud from them as unerringly and loosely as lilacs and roses on a bush, and take shapes as compact as the shapes of chestnuts and oranges, and melons and pears, and shed the perfume impalpable to form.

Walt Whitman—Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855)

It is your idea, your promise, your innovation that will capture, not because of you, but perhaps in spite of you.

In this entry, Whitman compares all great works to music and declares that what makes music great is much like what makes any great work—a cumulative rhythm that allows it to be true.

But this is the very difficult thing about music and truth. If you believe that your idea must be shaped to meet a certain form, you are destined to limit the true power of your entrepreneurial journey.

If, however, you believe that your truth will one day ascend to make beautiful music, then you'll have the resiliency to keep at it and push through every less-than-perfect iteration.

Go about laying brick by brick, dropping seeds, in an organic fashion that only you can translate, and you may indeed stumble upon an idea, or even a brand that “sheds the perfume impalpable to form.”

The outward form of your idea will come from your deeper internal truth.

It's okay if you're not sure of where your song is headed. Your heart knows the truth—keep working on your music.

Today, bring artistic intensity to every decision and choice ...