In studying creative people who are passionate about what they do, we can enhance our own creativity, and business savvy, even if we work in a completely different arena.

Of course, it’s easier for most people to relate to musicians and other creative people work than to people who design furniture.  The obvious emotion underlying a great song makes us feel that we have at least some understanding of the performers and their motivations. The authors of “Come Together: the Business Wisdom of the Beatles,” both avid Beatles fans, make the most of that idea: that in the beginning at least, the Beatles were just like you and me.

According Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers: The Story of Success",  the Beatles success was based on those years after Lennon and McCartney first started playing together in 1957, seven years prior to landing in America.

In 1960, while they were still just a struggling high school rock band, they were invited to play in Hamburg, Germany.  There the band would play hour after hour to catch passing traffic.  It didn't pay well but, the sheer amount of time the band was forced to play, the band gained more confidence as they put their heart and soul into their performance.

In Hamburg, they played for eight hours at a time, seven days a week, which resulted in a new way of playing: all told, they performed for 270 nights in just over a year and a half.  By the time they had their first burst of success in 1964, they had performed live an estimated twelve hundred times.

Most bands today don't perform twelve hundred times in their entire careers.

The message is clear, creativity + practice equals success.

Reference: Richard Courtney, “Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles”.