Whilst at an international seminar in Italy in October Mr Benjamin Zander's opening speech to the World Economic Forum was played. Afterwards one of the Italians asked if a transcript could be done so that some Italians that only had a basic understanding of English could better appreciate what was being said. Having done the transcription it was send over to Italy to be translated. The English transcription has be put up on my blog site so that should anyone wish they can put it through their translation programmes so that even if they do not speak English they can at least get some idea for this extraordinary message that was being transmitting at the World Economic Forum.Having a script is useful even for English speakers for it lets us spend as much time as we wish looking at what was said and going off into our own thoughts and returning back to the script.
Video of Mr Zander Talk (about 1h:16m)
I want to begin by introducing my partner Rosalind Zander, Roz is the author of the book we co-authored. She is not going to speak this morning but I want to include Roz in this experience because she’s at the source of what you are about to hear. And I thought the best way of including her would be to read a passage from the book. Like all human enterprises there is always more than one person on stage whether you see them or not. So I am going to read a passage from the book in which she explains what I am doing, a musician talking to a group of people from the business world which is most unusual and this is what she wrote “Artist, Musicians, Performers, Painters and Poets have rarely been in a position to speak directly to the those engaged in business finance or government. For most of human history artist have been employed merely to serve the authoritative intuitions usually by bringing emotional truth to established principals. In our new global society however there is no guiding intuition that speaks compellingly to the majority of people. Markets have replaced governments religion and other intuitions as the regulating force and the highest authority and markets do not do converse in a human tongue. This radical shift in the structure of the world begs for creativity it asks us to rethink who we are and who we can be as human beings. It may be that the artist in each one of us has an unprecedented opportunity to set the path. For art after all is about rearranging us creating surprising juxtapositions, emotional openings, startling presences, flight paths to the eternal. “The book is called the art of possibility and the art of possibility is a practice.
I want to give you a story. Two shoe salesmen were sent from Manchester to Africa in the nineteen hundreds to discover if they could sell shoes. One of them wrote a telegram back saying situation hopeless they don’t wear shoes. The other wrote glorious opportunity they don’t have any shoes yet. Now those two telegrams come from different places “Situation hopeless they don’t wear shoes” that goes along with a whole language of “It’s not possible”, “It can’t be done”, “Others are better”. It’s the place for competition for success for failure for all those things that we measure in what we call the downward spiral. The other statement lives over hear, to get a red pencil, “Glorious opportunity they don’t have any shoes yet” and that goes with a different language and also a different body language. Situation hopeless they don’t have any shoes. Glorious opportunity they don’t have shoes yet. Those two worlds are completely distinct worlds. Now in this world possible lives as luck we might have it we might not. Over here possibility is the norm, spirituality is the nom, they are totally separate different worlds and the shoe salesmen the two of them have conditions that are identical. The conditions don’t matter what matters is the words that they speak and the expression that they make. My father used to say that there is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing. So that is a way of experiencing that in that.
There is no recession so great that it precludes possibility and that is no wealth and power and fame that will protect you from falling into the downward spiral. So it’s available for everybody. There’s a lot of complaining going on right at the moment during the financial meltdown as they call it. I want to tell you a little story about my father who came from Germany in 1937 having lost everything all his belongings his mother killed in Auschwitz 14 other members of the family killed he lost everything his house his belongings his money his profession everything and he came to England with 4 children to support and a wife and incidentally I never hared him complain at all. I said aren’t you angry he said “Ah I discovered a person can’t live a life under the shadow of bitterness.”
He was then interned in a camp for two years on the Ile of Man and there, there were many people two thousand men of them living in tents a state of terrible upset having lost like he everything in a foreign country in war and uncertainly and different language horrendous situation and most of them were in a state of total depression, staring at the barbed wire fence the whole day and my father said “there are a lot of intelligent people here we should start a university”. And they did and 40 classes meet regularly. There was not books there was no chalk there was no paper there was no blackboard and they had 40 classes. Yesterday at the reception I met a gentleman who said “my father was in that university”.
So it isn’t the circumstances that are crucial it’s what we say about the circumstances that matter and we can either decide to live here or over there this is the first morning of the World Economic Forum and now we know we can make a choice and so my invitation is that we make the choice not over here but over here. We can choose and we can spend the week that discussion. This is a matter of leadership. Leadership in the sense that every time you open your mouth you are being a leader you have a choice in Leadership weather you speak over here or speak over here. Now it probably not wise to ask the conductor of an orchestra to speak about leadership the conductor of an orchestra is one last bastions of totalitarianism left in the civilized world. We stand on a podium we have a hundred musicians in front of us sometimes more I just conducted Mahler’s 8th symphony with six hundred and ninety musicians hung orchestra gigantic choir, children’s choir, trombones in the baloney everybody has to obey me. They did a study at Harvard business school some years ago and they studied job satisfaction in many different professions and they discovered where they finished the study that orchestra players came just below prison guards in terms of their job satisfaction. It’s heart breaking actually.
Whereas interestingly enough chamber music players came number one out of all the professions. And that’s really interesting because think you are playing a cello in an orchestra you’re paying a cello in chamber music, what’s the difference? Well apart from the numbers the presence of a conductor. So we are going to look at this character the conductor. There are a lot stories about conductors mostly told by orchestra players. One of my favourites is the one about Toscanini who was great conductor had the ability to galvanise people to the most amazing heights of power and expression and he also had a temper famous temper the story goes that in a rehearsal he was rehearsing and he noticed one of the double base players wasn’t paying his pat very well a he shouted “Your fired”. This was in the days before the union we can’t do that now but in those days you could fire a musician without any recourse or explanation and that would be the end of that gentleman’s career. This poor man had to pack up his bag and go home and tell his wife he did not have a job. And as he left the room for the last time he shouted at Toscanini “You’re a no good son of a bitch” and Toscanini shouted back “It’s too late to apologies”. Now that’s the old style of leadership. Top down, hieratical, right thinking and male and it served humanity for about 75,000 years and I think we all know that that style of leadership insufficient.
Now something happened to me when I was 45 that had a shattering effect on my life. It was a kind of road to Damascus event. I realised suddenly one day having conducted for about 20 years and become quite successful at it. I suddenly realised one day that the conductor doesn’t make a sound. Now my picture appears on the front of the CD but the conductor doesn’t make a sound he depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful. And when I realised this it had an overwhelming affect. So much so that members of my orchestra actually came and said what happen to you. What happen? They realise that something had happened. What had happened was I realised that my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course once I realised that I wanted to know whether I was doing that and do you know how you find out whether you are doing that. You look at eyes of the players and if they... Oh you could light up a village with her eyes. You see that if the eyes are shinning you know you are doing it. All the eyes are shinning here. If the eyes are not shinning you get to ask a question and this is the question. “Who am I being that my player’s eyes are not shinning?” We can do that with our children to “Who am I being that my children’s eyes are not shinning?”
And so it became a whole new journey for me to discover what it is that I had to do who I had to be to make the eyes of my players shine and the eyes of my of my audience shine and the eyes of my administration shine? That became a crucial issue now I want to try a little experiment. Does anybody have a birthday coming up? Anybody in the room... when is your Birthday? 8th of February. Would you come up here please. What is our name? Cana. This is Cana, please sit down. We are going to sing the single most frequent preformed piece of music in the entire world for Cana on his birthday. Here we go. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Cana Happy birthday to you. Now I want you to look at Cana face and now I want you to tell me if you think that made an enormous difference to him. I mean he’s very happy you know 500 people sung happy birthday but by February 8th he might actually have forgotten that this happed. Now I don’t need to tell you that Cana is a big player because he’s here and you are the leaders of the world couldn’t you do a little better? You know the song right. OK. Oh that was very interesting because when I ask you to sing before I did not even tell you which song we were going to sing. And I didn’t give you a tempo and I did not give you a key and I did not conduct you I just said sing. Now I have asked you to do something special for Cana. Let me ask you this is it happy birthday to you or is it happy birthday to you or it is happy birthday to you or is it happy birthday to you, which one is it? It’s the last one because it’s Cana birthday so we want to say Happy birthday to you, great so we have a decision.
Now as soon as you have a decision you have to a conductor to put it into practice and I’m going to be your conductor and if you want to add to your distinguished curriculum vitae that you sang under the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic that find my me. OK so we’re going to say happy birthday to you Are you ready here we go Happy birthday to you but don’t attack him he’s a very nice man I want you to do it with tenderness with warmth and with love, here we go. Happy birthday to you. That’s much better Now I’ve noticed that people who spend a lot of time behind computer terminals end up what I call neck ups. That’s people who function from the neck up. There are a lot of neck ups in this room So what I want you to do is use your hands everybody use your hands and if your if you are writing something don’t bother nothing I am saying is true.
OK are you ready here we go Happy birthday to you great that’s wonderful that’s wonderful. Now the next phrase is it more, less or the same. Nothing is the same. So which is it more, less or the same? It’s more and of course it’s more for two reasons one is the music goes up Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you of course if it went happy birthday to you happy birthday to you but there another reason we don’t go up to somebody and say something and repeat it less we don’t say I love you I love you unless you changed your mind you know. So with that in mind would you more the second time. From the beginning Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you. Great you’ve got the hands and you’ve got the crescendo. Now it you are at all excited Cana birthday could you inform your faces about it because I see your faces look like this. You know there was a famous violinist called Fritz Kreisler he was walking along the road with a friend and he passed a fish shop and he looked in the fish shop and said oh goodness me that reminds me I have a concert tonight. We want a little... when we get to that second phases a little eyebrow action a little life a little vitality and when we get to the finial phrase we are going to go over the top are you ready from the beginning Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Cana happy birthday to.
Did I notice something quite interesting a lot of you are looking at me. But it’s not my birthday I think you’re looking at me because I’m the conductor. So Cana would you stand on the chair please, stand on the chair, everybody stand up. Everybody stand up this is what I want you to do. I want you to take two people and your job is to make those two people sing the most impassionate performance of happy birthday that Switzerland has ever seen. Now if they don’t sing passionately these two people it’s your fault, if you think of yourself as a big player take three people. Now a want to say a word about Cana’s birthday Cana is at the pinnacle now. The perfect moment in life but I’ll tell how it goes pretty much in life from birth to 29 is all about growth and development at 30 it tends to flatten out because you have jobs and families and responsibilities and all that kind of thing and then it looks at a certain moment it if it might go downhill from here. Now it doesn’t have to my father lived to 96 he was still in growth and development. Now the way it is going to work out in Cana life depends on how we sing to him today. So he does not want us to. Ya we don’t want to hold back.
Cana I have a word to say to you it’s very hard in this culture to accept acknowledgement we make fun of it we say they don’t mean it they don’t mean me whatever. There are I would say 300 people in this room and they love you. Now do you hear that laughter that’s saying don’t be ridicules of course we don’t. No I mean it And I mean it in this sense they love you because they know if you have an extraordinary life untold numbers of other people are going to be effected so your job is to accept what’s about to hit you as a gift without comment OK. Can you do that? Now Cana is not the only person with a birthday coming up everybody in this room has a birthday coming up. Everybody in your live has a birthday everybody in the planet has a birthday. We are singing about the possibility of life itself. Have you got your partners are you ready here we go. Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday dear Cana happy birthday to you. Great. Happy birthday. Thank you very much thank you Now it’s very unlikely that Cana will forget that.
You know the first time I even did that there were a 1,000 people in the room and it was the last day of a weeklong retreat, I don’t call them retreats I call them forwards who want to retreat but anyway it was the last day and you know how people are on the last day there were wild then went completely wild and the whole room shock with the sound of the singing and the person who’s birthday it was 9 years old it was her 9th birthday I’ll never forget the look on this Childs face she stared out at a 1,000 people screaming happy birthday. She went like this. Well the next summer her mother called me and she said do you remember Lorna I said Lorna of course the birthday girl. She said well her birthdays coming up and she was wondering if this year she could have a symphony orchestra.
Now we have distinguished something in this room that was not here before and that is possibility because when you came into this room you thought there was only one way of singing happy birthday now you have discovered there is another way of singing happy birthday maybe an infinite number of ways of singing happy birthday which indecently is problem. What are you going to do the next time you have to sing happy birthday? Imagine you’re at the office or you’re at home or you’re in a restaurant and somebody has a birthday and everybody singing happy birthday to you. What are you going to do? Well there’s one of three things you can do. You can say “well that the way the world is” or you can say “don’t these stupid people know how this song is supposed to go” or you can get up and conduct and those three things look this. And you can choose you can choose one of those three responses for every situation for the rest of your life. Because those three responses are always valid responses. Resignation, anger or possibility. Now I say that the World Economic Forum is devoted and committed to possibility and not to resignation or anger.
Now I want to go from there to say something about where possibility lives I want to return to the old game of the 9 dots which everybody knows but let’s revisit the game of the nine dots. This is the game where you join 9 dots with four lines without taking the pen off the paper and imagine you’re in a meeting having a discussion and somebody says “Let’s try this well alright then let’s try this no that won’t work our rivals did it last year it did not work for them well let’s try this” I gave this to the president of a corporation in Korea. He worked on it with his entire family for over an hour. There were so many lines you could hardly see the page. Finally I put them out of their misery and told them the only way we can do this was to go outside the box and of course that where the phases “out of the box thinking” comes from and everybody wants out of the box thinking. The question is how, do you get out of the box thinking. The answer is very simple you ask a question and this is the question. “What assumptions am I making that I don’t know that I am making?” What assumptions am I making that I don’t know that I am making? That give me what I see and what, can I invent that I have not yet invented that will give me something new.
In the case of happy birthday the assumption was there is only one way of signing this song. In this case if I had said using the whole wide sheet of this paper join the nine dots with four lines you would do it instantaneously without even thinking but the moment I say using the whole wide sheet of paper that brings this into being. If I don’t say that you make an assumption without knowing that you are making it. Which is that it has to be completed inside the box. Incidentally there is no box there, there are nine dots.
But we have to organise things into boxes otherwise life don’t work. People often say to me I live my whole life outside the box. No nobody lives their whole life outside of the box. All you can do is move into another box and then another box and then in another box and finally a box 6 by 3 and is the final box. And I say that every organisation every enterprise every human endeavour has to have somebody who’s job it is to notice what assumption are being made and has permission to say so. Now in an orchestra you cannot speak to the conductor you may not know that but if you’re playing in an orchestra you are not allowed to speak to the conductor. If you have to speak to the conductor it must be in the form of a question. How after all can you add to the knowledge of an omniscient being? So this does not work in an orchestra.
Now if every question in every discussion of the World Economic Forum was based on the notion that we are questioning assumptions at every moment.
The conversations would automatically move into possibility it’s an automatic thing. Now there are other practices that we can use to take us from the downward spiral into radiating possibility one of the most powerful practices is a story that happened that I’ll tell you.
Two Prime Ministers were sitting in a room having a conversation about affairs of state and suddenly the door opens and a man comes in, in a state of apoplectic furry unbelievable anger he is banging his first and shouting and he completely disrupts the conversation and the Prime Minster who lives in that country says to this fellow “Peter pleases remember rule number six.” And immediately Peter is restored to complete clam he bows he apologises and he walks out of the room. They go back to their conversation 20 minutes later the door bust open and a woman comes in she’s out of control and again hair flying all over the place and her mascara running again the Prime Minister says “Maria please remember rule number six” and again she bows and apologise and walks out of the room calm restored and then after 20 minutes it happens for the third time. Have you noticed that it always happens three times? Happy birthday to you happy birthday to you... anyway the third time the visiting Prime Minister says “My dear colleague” he said “This is extraordinary I have never seen anything like this three people completely out of control and you just say Rule number six and there’re restored immediately restored to calm would you tell me what Rule number six is” he says “Oh yes Rule number six very simple don’t take yourself so god dame seriously” he said “That’s a wonderful rule. What may I ask are the other rules?” He said “There aren’t any”.
Now I call that laughter cosmic laughter, all be it in this case rather tentative I must say. We conductors are not very good at rule number six are we. The conductors version of rule number six is “don’t take yourself so god dame seriously take me god dame seriously” A famous conductor Herbert Von Karajan got into a limousine after one of his rehearsals and said the driver as he was leaving said quick go go go drive hurry hurry and the man said “Very good sir where too?” he said “It doesn’t matter they need me everywhere” Rule number six.
Now if we practice rule number six along with questioning assumptions we would be spending a lot of time of there let me tell you another practice. I came home one day from class and I said to Roz “my students are so anguish, so competitive so worried about their grades about their competitions about their auditions about all the stresses and strains of being a musician they are so anguishes that they cannot take the risk with themselves that they need to take in order to be great artists what can we do?” and Roz came up with this beautiful idea which I practice now every year. I go into my class and give the students in the first class an A as a grade for the whole year with one condition. That they write a letter dated the following May when the class ends in which they say “Dear Mr Zander I got my A because” then they describe who they will have become by the following May to reflect this extraordinary grade and I tell them to fall passionately in love with the person they are describing in that letter. And they do they write about who they would be, who they could be who they see themselves as if only the voice in the head wouldn’t tell them they can’t do it. And when I come into class the person I teach is the person they’ve described in their letter. You see I only take A students. Now there are a few people looking quite anguish saying How does he do that. Well the answer is you can give an A to anybody. You can give an A to a taxi driver to a waitress in a restaurant you could give an A to the other cars in traffic when you’re driving. You can give an A to your mother-in-law you can give an A to anybody. And what happens when you give an A is that the relationship is transformed. Roz is a therapist she says “if there is a brake up in a relationship you are not giving somebody an A”. And think about it what grade are the Arabs giving the Israelis and what grade are the Israelis giving the Arabs? And how are they doing. So it creates a different world a world in which... I could imagine a conversation between a Jew and an Arab which goes. “It is a privilege to share this land which we inherited from our forefather Abraham and just think what we have given to the world in art and culture and knowledge and mysticism and religion and what we could teach the world about living together that is something”. That conversation hasn’t quite taken place yet. Let it take place here. Let the conversations for harmony and for construction take place in possibility. And let’s leave, the being right over here, behind. Even in every interaction we have the possibility of creating moving over here.
The leader’s job is to move from here to there and take people with them. Even saying hello to somebody I was on the elevator in the hotel a couple of days ago on the fifteenth floor and a gentleman was standing beside me and I said “How are you” and he said “Could be worst” and isn’t interesting what we say when somebody says “Hello how are you”, “Find, OK, not bad, hanging in there, surviving” I was over at my collage the other day and I said to one of my colleges how are you? And he said “breathing”. I told that to my children in my youth orchestra and they were so amused the next week they came and how you are “Fantastic”, “Incredible” one of these little kids about fifteen years old I said “How are you?” He said “if I were any better I would be a twin”.
We can always do it we can always move. Now fortunately we have little children the very little children they of course haven’t discovered this resignation yet. I don’t know if any of you have access to little children I have two little grandchildren seven and five and my seven year old in order to get from one place to another she skips. She doesn’t walk she skips she goes like this. Now you don’t see this much on Wall Street have you noticed they don’t do that much on Wall Street? If somebody did that on Wall Street They’d come along in a White van and take them away. But all my grandchild is saying is I am happy to be here and I am happy you’re here to. And there is piece of music that goes with that Beethoven’s 7th symphony. I have a CD you can get it at Amazon dot com and its exactly the way Beethoven had it in mind like this.....
That rhythm is very hard very hard to keep because it tends to fall into... you can do that for hours... that one two one two one two. This is one three one three... very hard rhythm to keep. And when I did the recording with the Philharmonic Orchestra a very great, one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Of course they knew the rhythm so they began and I said “No no the rhythm is ” ... “Oh Yes” and I said “No No the rhythm is ” ... “Oh yes” it kept on falling back. My job is to remind the players what the rhythm of transformation is. Because the rhythm of transformation is lighter, brighter, faster, more buoyant then the rhythm of exhortation and blame. You know I was having a conversation with a, it was a hotel in Germany I was having my breakfast alone and there was a family over in the corner and there was a five year old child who left her table and came towards me. Five years olds don’t go directly from one place to another they kind of wander about anyway she eventually she came up to my table and she said Hello like that, hello like that everything was open everything was open obviously nobody have said to this child don’t speak to strange men. Probably by the time she got back to her table they would say that. But at that moment there was nothing between her and the possibility of relationship. Now how can we have that hello be the rallying cry for this new world we are going into.
We are going into a new world. I say the next 30 years are going to be the most exciting 30 years in human history. And the question is what kind of world do we want and who do we have to be for the journey? So we always have this choice. The choice between here and there. The art of possibility is knowing this place understanding it distinguishing it and then moving over here the leader is the one who can move other people in that direction. That how it’s done.
Now I want to share with you a very beautiful thing which is we have a string quartet in our mist a young quartet and we are going to play a Mozart quartet. Now you may say why Mozart? This is a group of people from all over the world from different cultures from different worlds why would they want to hear Mozart and anyway there’s a lot of trouble in the world and people are busy and why would they want to hear Mozart. Well I believe that everybody loves classical music it’s just that they haven’t found out about it yet. And I believe that if you listen to classical music it will have an effect on you and raise your spirits and make the eyes shine. Now you can notice by looking at my face that there is no doubt in my mind that I believe that this is going to work. It’s one of the characteristics of a Leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he is leading to realise whatever he is dreaming. Image if Martian Luther King had said “I have a dream of course I’m not sure they’ll be up to it”. So let’s invite our quartet up to the stage get their instruments and we are going to hear them play Mozart.
This quartet has come together for this occasion two of them play in one quartet and the other two play in the other quartet and they have not played together and they came up last night just to play for you. And I’ve never seen them before or meet them delighted to welcome, there they and their names are got them all written down here so I can remember otherwise I wouldn’t remember Ester is the first violinist Serena is the second violinist Kathrin is the third the viola and Debar is the cellist. “Ester how are you feeling about playing for these people? “ “Fine” Fine just fine OK? OK yes.
Let me tell you a story Jacqueline Du Pre who you all know was five years old when she went into her first competition. And she was seen running down the corridor with her cello like this And one of the guards saw her and said well I can see that you’ve just played she said “No I’m just about to” She was five years old and she realised what a joy what a privilege it is to play for people. How are you feeling now? Great. Great. Ok they are going to play a movement of Mozart, divertimento.
Wow beautiful.
Beautiful paying I haven’t heard them before and I am really amazed they played really really beautiful. This piece was written as a divertimento meaning... Actually as background music, would have been played at a party people might that been clinking glasses and eating and as such this performance was a very very high level entertainment played at about as well as you could play in that category and I am going to refer to that as a moment as inside the box playing I mean it was very very high level and very beautiful we call party entertainment music it would be perfect.
Question is can we find something else can something more in this music that takes us a little bit into a different arena. So Ester image that everything in Mozart is an opera. So imagine there’s a young lady and she’s lost her lover and she’s terribly sad and she said “Ahh” like that on that first note like a sigh would you do that like a sigh “Ahh”. Just the first note just the first note. Just the “Ahh” If you move the bow faster “Ahh” like that. Yes that a little aggressive. Really sad. Oh that’s beautiful “Ahh”.”Ahh” “Ahh” that beautiful. Now she says weeping, crying can you do that just the weeping and the crying. You heard it actually weeping, crying do t one more time. Weeping, crying. Now somebody comes along and says it really isn’t that bad - Just do that - Great now do all three. The sigh weeping crying and then - Beautiful a little applause please that’s great Now can we let the others play with you and don’t get in their way don’t get in their way all right. Debora it’s a little bit - if you play - you’ll get in her way because you –but if you do it more linear like that . So you to right. Do you see how they go together? . You sympathise with her OK great do that. “Ahh” Now Serena, do you I was in Spain once and I saw a shoe shop and it had outside a sign which said Alvirus shoe maker and underneath lessons in second violin. So this is your moment. No second violin playing right this is your big moment. So would you just before I think it’s bar 11 - Yes you could do it even more would you stand up when you do it do from 11 again Beautiful beautiful - That’s good that’s good. Now this is even sadder her sighing is even more because it’s in a minor key. It’s gone really badly Oh we have a little thing there which I want to point out. You have a deceptive cadence. So could you do something special first of all just do the cadence normal regular without the B flat going to D in other words. Do the two pizzicato people - And now back to D normal. Now do it with the B flat and I would recommend that you raise your eyebrows slightly because then they’ll know Do it again - Wonderful wonderful put up your hand if you if you noticed the deceptive cadence. Yes just checking great. Wonderful OK great now let’s add the second violin you do the second violin on your own because have something really. Oh no first of all we should do the first violin because there’s something very special here once again Oh did you hear that it’s so beautiful first bar heavy second bar light Poor you. Poor you. Shall we do that again Oh that’s what Mozart wrote but he didn’t mean it. No he wrote He wrote - He didn’t mean that he meant - That so called arpeggio right. And how do I know that well I’m 70 and when you are 70 know you things. So just do that - Just do that - right exactly. Right exactly now do it in context Beautiful great that, for many composers would be enough did you notice the difference between... Just put up your hand if you noticed that. We have a lot of people wow great. So now the second violin you have something Serena very interesting would you play it alone She wasn’t excepting me to ask her to play it alone. So it wasn’t quite perfect. Now I have a rule my students and with my players in my orchestra that if they make a mistake they go like this “How fascinating”.
Try it out on the golf course it works out very well because yes it really - and it’s difficult to do that “How fascinating” because when you make a mistake everything pulls down. Notice it the next time you make a mistake very thing pulls down and instead you go “How fascinating” like this. It’s actually like this very difficult to do. You know it’s the reason why if one of my students has a problem we had a wonderful singer in my class. Usually a very cheerful fellow sat in the front row and always very energetic and one day he sat right at the back white faced almost catatonic I went up to see him afterwards and I said John “What’s the matter?” and he said “my fiancée has left me and I am not sure it’s worth going on”. And I don’t think he meant with the class I think this was really serious. So I put my arms around him to encourage him but secretly inside I was saying “Great now he’s going to be able to sing that Shubert song about the man who lost his beloved. My teacher I had a great teacher Pasido Gaso Pasido you know him he was a great teacher and he used to say “you cannot play great music until your heart has been broken”. So I say “Let’s have more broken hearts and get on with it”. So if you make a mistake like that just “How fascinating” try it again one more time Serena Can I suggest that you pretend you’re having a good time. You look awfully serious just enjoy yourself. Now try it again
Brilliant.
A very good trick if something is difficult pretend you’re having a good time it will even become easy. Let’s try it all together now, you’re got the pizzicato with the deceptive cadence, you’re got your beautiful song and you’re got Do you have any idea how old Mozart was when he wrote this? 15 years old. 15 years old are you ready. Now I just want to tell you, Just stay where you are. I just want to let you something about this applauses. It’s not actually for you is not even for Mozart. Do you happen to know what Brach wrote at the end of every piece then he finished a piece do you know what he wrote at the end? “For the Gory of God”. For the glory of god now Brach and Mozart are not up there saying “Oh thank you very much for all that applause”. They knew it was about something much bigger. I call that possibility.
What they are saying thank you for what they are applauding for is saying thank you to this wonderful quartet for taking us into a world we couldn’t have reached without you. And I want you to look at some of these faces. Look at this face. Look at this face. Look at this face. Look at this face if you had a picture of this gentleman’s face on your mirror when you were practicing I think that might change the way we practices and play. You know because musicians are always so anguish, there’re anguish about auditions, there’re anguish about competitions, there’re aguish about their lessons their grads all that stuff and it closes us down. This was 4 young wonderful musicians totally opened up to the possibility of music. And thank you, you know they did not know they didn’t know what was going to happen today. So this is what being available looks like thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Now what I just want to capture for a moment this that this... let me just get this down... this is a world of fixed reality here the resources are fixed. So naturally there’s a lot competition, domination, control, hierarchy, survival. There are only so many people who want to hear that quartet play Mozart. That’s where the competition comes from. Over here it’s an abundant world because there’s an infinite number of people who want to hear Mozart. There are three, four hundred growing in this room. So these two worlds are totally different worlds. And they go with their own language over here you have goals and goals tend to be rather grim. Do you remember goals they tend to be rather grim rather grim pursuit’s goals. We have to make our goal. Over here you can have a goal this is a vision this is the place of the vision. Over here you can have a goal as part of the vision by all means and if you make the goal great and if you don’t “How Fascinating”. Of course the CEOs don’t laugh so much at that one. Over here you have words like you should, you ought, you need and you must. Try those out on your children and see if their eyes shine.
Over there we have questions like How about, What if, What are we looking for, What’s next. See these worlds are completely different. This world is about wealth and fame and power and we know how to get those things. We go to school we work hard we make contacts we marry well and if it all works out we get wealth and fame and power. This world is about contribution it’s a totally different world. Over here we have blame and fault and threat. Over here request and apologies. I have a little beautiful little story.
I have a school in Boston high school where I’m in charge of a music program it’s an art school and four times a year the students come to the Boston Philharmonic and they sit in the balcony about 60 of them and one day we had a very great concert one of the greatest we every did it was the violist solo I think maybe the greatest living violinist 78 years old he’d never been in Boston it was a great event people flew up from New York there was a couple that came from Oklahoma they couldn’t get into the concert it was sold out. And I came out the conduct the first piece on the program sure enough every seat was taken I look up in the balcony 30 empty seats up in the balcony. It was my kids from the school. They’d gone to the Mall, they’d gone shopping and I was pissed off.
And the next day I was driving to school to talk to the kids you know to give my class and was talking to Roz on the phone and I said Roz you can’t imagine these stupid kids they didn’t come to the concert and they had tickets and they had didn’t come they went to the Mall so irresponsible and she said remember to apologise. I said apologise what do you mean apologise they’re completely irresponsible they were taking tickets from other people they had it on their program. She said remember to apologise. I had no idea what she was talking about she talks like a sphinx sometimes I don’t understand a word. Anyway just as I arrived at the door I realised what it was that she meant. And I said to the kids I’m so so sorry I didn’t tell you all about wonderful violinist I didn’t tell you about this amazing program this life changing concert so I didn’t enrol you. I’m so sorry I let us all down. So if people don’t do what you want them to do you can always apologise because you didn’t enrol them. That’s very different from blame and fault and threat which is what we do over here. You see these worlds are completely different.
Over here we put people down and also put them up. Over here everybody gets an A. Over here, do you remember in 1929 when people threw themselves off the buildings when and the stocks when down. Over here you get skydiving, it’s a different world. It’s a different world. Now you do get shinning eyes over here when you win and they lose “AH AH AH We won you lost” shinning eyes. How different the shinning eyes from the shinning eyes that were in this room just now when those girls were playing that Mozart piece and how different from the shinning eyes when Mandela got out of jail after 27 years or when the wall fell down in Berlin, which is when everybody’s eyes were shinning. So this is a simple simple task to recognise the downward spiral and to move over here to possibility. It is so simple, is it easy? No it is not easy because this has the power of gravity. It’s like gravity within a minute and a half of leaving this room you will be engaged in a downward spiral conversation. And then the question is who will enrol who? Will you enrol them or will they enrol you? The leader, the new leader is the one who can recognise the downward spiral and has the capacity to move people over here to radiating possibility. And we have so many such visionary leaders. On Saturday one of the greatest visionary leaders of our time Hoyas Anthonyo ABRAHÃO is going to here. The one that started that incredible Venezuela program is going to be here in our mist. This place is full of visionary leaders. The whole idea of a World Economic Forum is a visionary idea.
And yet how often we fall into the downward spiral it’s there almost at every turn. So this is the question can we keep doing that and what does it take to move us over into that place. Now the thing is that. In this world we have contribution. I used to be over here all the time I even used to conduct an orchestra and I was worried while I was conducting saying to myself maybe there is an orchestra that I could conduct that would make me more successful than the one I am conducting. Then I realised it just a game we are playing a game. That’s a game of success and failure it like the hand it has a back and a front. You can’t separate the back from the front and so I knew that that would ever end. So I invented a new game it’s called “I am a contrition” and it that game you get up in the morning and you ask “What can I contribute today?” That’s the game. You never get tried this game never get tried it’s an amazing thing about the game.
I got up at 2 o’clock this morning you how it is coming from America at different times all the busy things, never get tired of playing the game and it’s amazing because nobody right now in this room is feeling tired. And that’s not because I am highly entertaining which I am. No the vicar who thinks that people come into the church to see him gets taken away in a white van. This is not about a person this is about a power that is available to every human being at every moment of every day it’s called possibility and I have a dream. I have a dream that every conversation and every interaction through this entire week of the World Economic Forum will be in Possibility. I have another dream a bigger dream that when you go home for a whole month every conversation and every interaction will be... Actually I have a bigger dream that you will live the rest of your life in possibility.
Now it makes a difference what worlds come out of our mouth. I learnt this from a woman who survived Auschwitz one of the rear survivors she told that she went to Auschwitz when she was 15 years old. Her brother was 8 and they were in the cattle train and the parents were lost and they were going to Poland and she looked down and saw that here bother had lost his shoes. And she said “Why are you so stupid you idiotic child why do you keep losing things can’t you things together”. You know the way an elder sister would speak to a younger brother. The trouble was, it was the last thing she ever said to him because he didn’t survive. And so she made a vow. She told me this herself when she came out of Auschwitz she said “I made a vow” she said “I will never say anything that couldn’t stand as the last thing I ever say”.
Now can we do that? No, we cannot do it and we’ll make ourselves wrong we’ll make others wrong in the downward spiral but it is a possibility to live into and that’s what this is about. A possibility to live into. Imagine having the opportunity to speak this group at the beginning of the World Economic Forum 2009 about a possibility to live into for human begins. And what a moment we are in with the new presidency and new opportunity that this moment offers it’s a glorious opportunity. And we have an opportunity this week in this place to interact with each other, every moment in possibility remembering the sounds of that heavenly Mozart as a guild in case we fall into this place where we are so familiar. What a privilege that will be and what a privilege it is to be able to share this possibility with all of you.
Now if you go under your chair you’ll find some sheets of paper on which are written the words of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. Yes it’s at the end of the row end of the row You pass them right down the row Yap. Can I borrow one please - Just pass then down - Now if you’re German you’re going to have some serious problems here But if you’re Germany you know this song it’s not for you, it’s for the people that don’t know German. I’m going to read it in English you’re going to read it after me and its going to come out sounding in German. So I’ll read it first.
Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt.
Sounds exactly like German well done now let’s do it one more time together and then we’ll sing it so together sing saying it.
Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt, So you know the song. So let’s sing it. Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt,
Well done you’re doing well. Now do you remember the Happy Birthday? I saw several people going Freude, schoener Goetter. What we want is a one buttock line of vision like this. Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium.Try that Freude, schoener Goetter Yar what you’re doing is exactly the same as before only faster. Freude, schooner
What I do is I hold the first note and I take flight I go. Freude, schoener Goetter Wait wait Just listen Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. You see it can’t end there Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum Try that
Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt,
Sounds beautiful it sounds a little bit as though you’re not quite sure what you are singing about. So let me tell you Freude, is Joy, schooner is beautiful, Goetterfunken is god like shining bright light, Tochter aus Elysium, daughter of heaven Wir betreten we stand feuertrunken, drunk with fire, we stand drunk with fire , Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, means at your holy heavenly place. Now comes the main thing Deine Zauber your magic says the poet Schiller, your magic binden wieder binds together, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, this is what the poet is saying habit fashion business as usual that has torn us apart if we could get beyond that to possibility Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, all human begins will be as brothers. All human beings will be as brothers Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt, means where your soft wings do waft.
So this is a song to the possibility that human beings are. Knowing that would you please stand... and if you are at all excited about the possibility that human beings are could you inform your faces about it please. Here we go. Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. Now look I want to stop you because a lot of you are buried in the music like this. I want to remind you, you already have an A. And if you make a mistake “How Fascinating”. You see if you go up to somebody and say “I love you” or “I love you” they won’t believe you. So no neck ups here we go.
Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten Now look you’re going great but I want to tell you something I hear serious holding back in this room. I’ll tell you what happened I had a student in Boston he was a young Spaniard from Barcelona. He wanted to go to Barcelona to be the associate principle cellist in the Barcelona orchestra and he came to play for me first and I said he play well and I said “You played well if you play this way I think you’ll get into the orchestra I don’t believe they’ll make you the associate principle cellist because to be a leader you have to open up possibility that they don’t even know about and you’re not doing that”. And I went to the piano and he played and he got more intense and more excited and his hair so flying and he was playing like that. And I said “That’s it That’s it you play that way Maoris I promise you you’ll get the job. That won’t they won’t be able to resist you” Then as he left I said “Maoris be sure now, don’t play the first way be sure to play the second way” He said “Of course I’ll play the second way” So he went off to Spain he came back 3 weeks later. I said “What happened” he said “Well I’m afraid I didn’t get the job” I said “What happened ” he said “I played the first way” I said “Never mind” “No no wait wait wait” he said “you haven’t heard the whole story” and then in his heavy Spanish accent he said “I was so pissed off” he said “I said Fuck it” he said “I’m going to go to Madrid I’m going to do the audition for the first cello position in the Madrid orchestra and I won the job.
At twice the salary of the other job.” I said “what happened?” he said “I played the second way” So we introduced a new distinction in my class called Beyond The Fuck It. All students know it even the very little ones and I was in a catholic girls school in California the head mistress said “BTFI has become our school motto” This is the song they played over the loud speakers in Tiananmen Square in the revolution and when the wall fell down Berlin this is the song they played. This is a song to the possibility that human beings are. And I say that’s who you are. I don’t believe you were bought here to give you more information. I think you were bought here to remind you that you are the possibility that human beings are. So let’s have one more performance BTFI. Are you ready?
Freude, schoener Goetterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium, Wir betreten feuertrunken, , Himmlische, dein Heiligtum, Deine Zauber binden wieder, Was der Mode Schwert geteilt, Bettler werden Fuerstenbrueder, Wo dein sanfter Fluegel weilt,
Bravo. Bravo. I have one more thing. I have one more thing because you’re about to go out into the world of the downward spiral. Would you site a moment and I’ll tell you this thing. It has two parts to it the first part is very very short and it’s and simple and it’s very powerful something Roz says. “Possibility is always only one sentence away. However difficult however overwhelming the odds however high the mountain Possibility is always only one sentence away”. And the other thing is to remind you that the downward spiral lives in our language it lives in our speaking. Once upon a time there was a monastery that had fallen on hard times. Once a great order, as result of religious persecution in the 17th and 18th century all its branches were lost it had become decimated, there were only 5 monks left in the Mother House there was the Abbot and four others all of them over were 70 clearly it was a dying Order. In the deep woods surrounding the monastery there was a little hunt that the Rabbi from a nearby town came occasionally used for hermitage. One day it occurred to the Abbot to visit the hermitage to see if the Rabbi could offer any advice that might save the monastery.
The Rabbi welcomed the Abbot and commiserated “I know how it is” he said “the spirit has gone out of people almost nobody comes to the synagogue any more”. So the old Rabbi and the old Abbot wept together and they read parts of the Torah and quietly spoke of deep things. The time came when the Abbot had to leave they embraced “It’s been wonderful being with you” said the Abbot “but I failed in my purpose for coming, have you no piece of advice that might save the monastery?” “No I’m sorry” the Rabbi responded “I have no advice to give the only thing I can tell you is that the Messiah is one of you”
When the other monks heard the Rabbi’s words they wondered what possible significance they might have “the Messiah is one of us, one of us here at the monastery do you suppose he meant the Abbot. Of cause it must be the Abbot, who’s been out leader for so long, on the other hand he might have meant brother Thomas who’s certainly is a holy man certainly he couldn’t have meant brother Elrond he’s so crotchety but then Elrond is very wise, surely he couldn’t of meant brother Philip he’s too passive but then magically he’s always there when you need him, of course he didn’t mean me ahh ahh ahh yet supposing he did. Oh God not me I couldn’t mean that much for you could I?” As they contemplated in this manor the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one of them might be the Messiah and on the off chance that each monk himself might be the Messiah they began to treat themselves with extraordinary respect.
Now because the forest in which this was situated was beautiful people occasionally came to visit the monastery to picnic or to wander along the old paths most of which lead to the dilapidated chapel. They sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that surround the 5 old monks and permeated the atmosphere they began to come more frequently being their friends and their friends brought friends and then some of the younger men who came to visit started to talk more and more with the monks and after a while one asked if he might join and then another and another so within a few years the monastery had once again become a thriving Order and thanks to the Rabbi’s gift a vibrant authentic community of light and love for the whole realm.
Thank you for listening.
