One artist I’ve been fascinated by over several years is Kanye West. Despite moments in which his actions were clearly questionable, it seemed impossible to just write him off. Now this service is by no means about Kanye but about the importance of reinvention and how it is actually an underrated competitive advantage.
The reality is Kanye could have focused strictly on music and continued to grow his impact however, he kept reinventing himself in a society where doers are quickly forgotten, and our “why” easily withers. Few months back, I stumbled upon “jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy” on Netflix, and was locked in on a rare footage. In this footage, Pharrell said to Kanye; “The power of your work comes from your hunger. So don’t let this get into your head and cause you to loose that.” Such simple words but the few who embrace this truth are precisely those we often hear about at the turn of each decade.
At certain stages in our lives, where the fire in our bellies refused to be quenched by the water bodies in our surroundings, we too possessed that raging hunger to create, to inspire, to empower, to evolve. Yet somehow we allowed the early wins to suppress the long-term vision of whom we have been called to be. We accepted that part of the journey as the entrée, when it was only meant to be a starter.
Without being conscious of this, we ended up giving our hunger the permission to reinvent itself into complacency. And in usual fashion, we too became complacent. We cultivated the attitude of questioning whether we are indeed on the right path. On whether being here is even worth while. Thoughts- unwanted and unscrupulous thoughts- began to creep in. But it still felt impossible to move forward, didn’t it? Because reinvention is often accompanied by a high risk of failure. So naturally, we became timid to even try.
But what if you actually succeeded at the first or second or third attempt? Fam, just picture yourself a decade from now reflecting on the last ten years. Imagine still being in the same place, yet everyone around you may have completely evolved and progressed. Was the complacency truly worth it?