PODCAST – Lessons From Beyoncé Part 1: Innovate, Don’t Imitate – Legends Report

By Sukh Singh, Associate Partner, Lighthouse International

To listen to this article, click the player below:

In 2011, Beyoncé started something which everyone around her thought was impossible. They didn’t know how it could be achieved. Yet that process is something that every true legend embarks on and if we want to be happy in life, if we want a great year ahead, we absolutely need to as well.

A Video-Album With Zero Promotion

After a career that has seen more success than most musicians would dream of, Beyoncé found herself questioning her next move. She didn’t want to launch a new album only for people to just download her songs and then move on when they were bored to check out that new artist. She wanted people to have a brand new experience. So instead, she came up with the idea to launch a visual-album; to shoot a music video for every song on the album. That’s like shooting 17 short films, each taking several months! Not only that, but she wanted to launch the whole visual-album together instead of through singles. She wanted to do it without any promotion. No adverts, no press releases, no billboards.

Nothing.

Finally, in 2013, while the world was busy doing its thing, the self-titled album Beyoncé was silently released. It sold 828,773 copies worldwide in its first three days, becoming the fastest-selling album in the history of the iTunes Store. It was ranked as one of the best albums of the year and described as one of the greatest albums of the decade.

Don’t Imitate, Innovate! 

Why is this significant for us? Beyoncé didn’t just follow the trend of what everyone else was doing. She took a big risk, but she ultimately created something brand new, something unheard of, something pioneering to move the world of music forward.

We are hardly ever taught to really be creative – to use our imagination, our ideas or our passions to add value to the world. More often than not, we are taught to follow the rules, do what everyone else is doing, fit into someone else’s idea of who we are. It manifests in different ways… We might be worried about voicing our opinion at work in case it gets shot down and we are branded “an idiot”. We might be afraid of being really creative because of how that creativity was shut down at school.

Real Legends Want to Innovate

They may learn from other legends along the way, but eventually they find their own style, their own passion, their own voice. Beyoncé has been inspired by the likes of Tina Turner and Michael Jackson, but she’s doing things that have never been done before. If you want to be really happy, really fulfilled, really optimally successful, then you have to innovate – not imitate. The world will be better for you expressing your voice, your talents, your ideas and your initiative. The alternative can be very frustrating for you – and a massive loss for others.

Watch the full video below to hear Beyoncé explain her journey in her own words…

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