Episode 34 - Berry Gordy & Creative Competition
Not everything has to be a competition...but maybe it should be. When creative people compete, everyone can win, and we’re going to explore how.
Motown didn’t just blossom naturally from the cracks of the Detroit sidewalk, like a dandelion. It took serious creative cultivating and gardening to make it bloom into the hit-making juggernaut Motown became. The man to lead that cultivation was none other than Berry Gordy; the legendary musician producer who fostered an atmosphere of creative competition, which in turn attracted the greatest performers in America to the tiny Detroit studio known as Hitsville. Today we’re looking at how Gordy’s process of creative competition worked. How it transformed the culture. And how sometimes the best way to get incredible results from your people, both in music and in the business world, is to turn everything into a competition. We’ll also be looking at the psychology of competition, and ask ourselves; is it human nature to compete with each other? And if so, is it healthy or productive for us to get competitive about everything? Finally, we’ll share a few stories of our own about competitive natures, and how Todd and Joe first started working together. Spoiler: it involved a friendly competition.
History Links:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6733446/
https://www.businessinsider.com/where-do-nasa-astronauts-come-from-ohio-and-new-york-2019-7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motown_discography
Science Links:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/why-we-compete/403201/