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Listen to the latest episode of Fast Company’s Creative Conversation podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Kenny G is one of those artists you love, hate, or just allow to exist quietly in the background of your life, like so much of the smooth jazz that he’s done over his 40-year career.
HBO’s new documentary unpacks every point of view of the polarizing superstar. Listening to Kenny G charts the unlikely ascension of Kenny Gorelick, a promising young saxophonist in Seattle, Washington; to Kenny G, an international powerhouse with 75 million records sold, making him the best-selling instrumental artist of all time.
Even if you don’t like Kenny G’s take on jazz (and the documentary certainly delves into the varied criticisms in that regard), you can’t deny that he’s an incredibly skilled musician who, even after decades of playing the saxophone, stays in the mindset of a neophyte.
“I make the joke sometimes: I’ve been practicing three hours a day, it’s been about 50 years, and last week I started to see some results,” Kenny G says in the latest episode of Fast Company‘s podcast Creative Conversation. “There’s these really small nuances that [take] it from good to great—and those small nuances are the three hours a day practicing for me.”
Kenny G attributes his success to that relentless pursuit of perfecting his craft, paired with trusting his instincts, both in his art and his career.
By 1986, Kenny G had released three albums under Arista Records, to middling sales. During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Kenny G was supposed to play his single at the time, “Don’t Make Me Wait for Love,” but at the last minute, he told his band that he was switching to “Songbird,” a song he’d only played at small venues.
That performance (and gut instinct) was the catalyst for his dizzying climb. “Songbird” hit Number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album, Duotones, landed in the Top 10 on the Billboard 200.
“It definitely took a lot of conviction, but honestly at that point I had zero to lose,” Kenny G says of his decision to go rogue on Johnny Carson. “I had not had much of a career. And so I’m thinking, ‘This is my big shot on television. I’m going to play the song I want. And if nothing good happens, well, at least I know I went out trying my best.’”
Check out highlights from Kenny G’s Creative Conversation episode, below, and listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher.
Pack a parachute when you go rogue
“First of all, you have to get your skill level up to a certain point because you don’t want it all based on luck. You don’t want to go on a show [like Johnny Carson] and go, ‘Well, I’m pretty good at this, and I hope tonight’s the big night that I do really well.’ No, you want to know that you are really great at what you’re about to perform, and then do what you do. Then you know that you probably have a good chance of it being successful. Even if people don’t really like it, you know that you did a great performance of something that meant a lot to you, and you can walk away feeling confident. And that confidence can then lead to maybe another break somewhere along the line if it doesn’t turn out to be that break that night.”
Trust your ideas
“I’m going to trust that something I hear inside [my head] is good. And then I’m going to take that idea that I think is good, and I’m going to try to expand it. I’m going to try to make it better and make it more expressive and grow that idea. That, to me, is creativity. Rather than looking around and seeing what’s popular and trying to emulate something that you think is cool, or that you think people are going to like, it comes from within. You trust yourself, and you grow it from there.”
If you know, you know
“What I give from me [are] my recordings, my performances, that’s what I deliver. What happens after that is entirely up to the individual, and I can’t control that. So if I play a beautiful song that, for me, every nuance of it was something that you should pay close attention to because [it’s] very complicated the way I [move] from the F sharp to the E flat and all these things that you could say, ‘Whoa, that technique was pretty awesome,’ you might listen and go, ‘Whoa, I’m going to put that on in the background for tonight’s dinner with my girlfriend or boyfriend,’ that’s fine. I know what went into it. So that’s where I can feel good about what I’m doing.”
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As many teams continue to work from home, the traditional eight-hour, five-day workweek is getting a makeover. Schedule experiments are becoming more prevalent, but the CEO of one U.K.-based tech company doesn’t think companies are going far enough.
“A lot of businesses try four-day weeks, and I don’t feel they are truly flexible,” says Tom Fairey, CEO of Stakester, an online skills-based competition platform for gamers. “If you tell people when they have to work, you’re not giving them flexibility. Some people might want to work the weekend, and then they feel like they can’t. Just because a workweek structure is put in place for everyone, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it works for everyone.”
Before launching Stakester, Fairey came from a corporate background. When he started his company, he heard a phrase that challenged his management philosophy: Work is something you do, not somewhere you go. After starting the company with a traditional five-day workweek, Fairey decided to try an experiment, giving his team complete flexibility.
“I thought to myself, ‘How can I create something that works for everyone?’” he says. “We have what we call an ‘adult culture.’ As long as you get your work done, it doesn’t matter when you do it.”
The Totally Flexible Workweek
Stakester employees can work any day of the week, anytime they want. Instead of being measured by hours, team members have very specific goals to achieve. Someone who works in product development, for example, is given a timeline to complete a new feature.
“We’re a business, and we’ve got deadlines and targets, but when people work, that’s nonsensical,” says Fairey. “We’re 100% results driven. We set out what we need to achieve, we agree to it, and then they go off and do it. They decide if they’re going to work at 10 o’clock at night or 6 in the morning. I [ask] them to be responsible and work the hours necessary to make it happen.”
Fairey says the approach involves an athletic mindset. “If you said to an athlete, ‘You’re going to run a marathon in 6 weeks’ time,’ you wouldn’t say, ‘but you have to run between 10 and 12 every day,’” he says. “You would say, ‘Run when you want to run.’ It’s the same with work. If they’re feeling a bit tired and don’t have a rest, they’ll be at the computer being a zombie. I want them energized, where they’re working hard the whole time because they’re engaged.”
But working different hours than coworkers can create a challenge if you need information to complete your work. “We say to people, ‘We need you to just be responsible,’” says Fairey. “We give you absolute freedom, but there’s an expectation that we still need to get the job done. You have to be respectful of other people’s freedom. If you’re asking someone a question at four in the morning, it’s probably a bit unreasonable to expect a reply straightaway. Be respectful of other people’s time and needs. And when you have to completely switch off, let people know.”
The Results of Total Flexibility
After shifting control to employees, Fairley says some stuck to a nine-to-five, five-day week. “The rest of the world operates in that fashion, and that’s absolutely fine,” he says.
Other employees prefer to work weekends, and some work nights. And Fairey says one employee based in the U.S. likes to work U.K. hours because they get more freedom in the afternoon.
A completely flexible arrangement won’t work for every business, but Fairey recommends it for remote companies that are focused on objectives and goals. “When you give people freedom to work in the way that works best for them, rather than the way that works best for you, you’ll be amazed at what people are able to achieve,” he says. “Complete flexibility helps the mental well-being of employees and takes away some stress. If they need to pick up the kids from school, go to the doctor, or just want to go to the gym, they can. The best results you get are always going to be from the employees who are the happiest. It’s your responsibility as an employer to make sure that your employees are challenged but also happy.”
Advice for Getting Started
Fairey admits that leaders need to take a leap of faith when implementing complete flexibility. “Once you start to see benefits, it becomes easier, but I won’t pretend that it was easy to begin with,” he says. “Trust is something to earn over time. Once you give it to your employees, they’ll give it back to you as well, and they’ll want to work for the greater good of the business.”
Fairey describes the business results of complete flexibility as “incredible.” “We found that people are being more creative, and their output is better,” he says. “I don’t know if [complete flexibility] is the only factor, but our business has grown by about 2,000% since we put this system in place.”
Whether it’s a four-day workweek or complete flexibility, now is the best time for companies to experiment, adds Fairey. “We’re at an amazing point in our history where we’re able to change the rulebook, start things from scratch, and figure out how we can make a significant difference to the way that we’re working,” he says. “[Workweek structures] have been in favor of the employer for a long time. I think it’s important that we get to where there is a balance on both sides. I would encourage other leaders and entrepreneurs to do what works for your business. Experiment with it and see what happens. I think you’ll be amazed at the outcome.”
Editor’s Note: Each week Maynard Webb, former CEO of LiveOps and the former COO of eBay, will offer candid, practical, and sometimes surprising advice to entrepreneurs and founders. To submit a question, write to Webb at dearfounder@fastcompany….
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