Niko Herzeg Marketing

I doubt any of you have heard of Saban Saulic. I myself am no great connaisseur of his work. But after seeing an interview with him a couple of nights ago, I am a fan.

Saban is a folk singer from Serbia. 50+ years and a man with a great career behind him. And I suspect and even greater one in front of him.

Because watching him in that interview I saw a man, who had lived through success, failure, women, self doubt and other people’s expectations to emerge as someone, for a lack of a better discription, real.

For years he wore a wig (even though everybody knew he was bald). Since a couple of years no more. If he feels an audience is not paying attention to him singing, he walks away. Ask him any question on any subject, you get a straight answer, no bull shit.

During the interview, when he lit up a cigarette, the camera focused in on him several times. He would listen to the question, take out one from the pack, light it up and really take in that first deep hit of tabacco before answering the question. Pure class and charisma.

But that is not to say that you, I  a company or brand won’t be able to be as charismatic, attractive and mesmorizing as Saban. We might, but it depends on us, the outside world and a bit of luck.

There is a natural cycle, which Saban’s story made clear to me while watching his interview:

1) there is the time when you do stuff for yourself;

2) a time when expectations other than your own play a role;

3) a time  post public expectation, almost like a second youth.

Let’s take music as a starting point. You would have had to have lived in a cave the last couple of years, not to notice the revival of Bruce Springsteen. A career that started in 1973 with “Greetings from Asbury Park”. Songs written about his live and that of his friends around the Jersey Shore. In 1984 “Born in the USA” made him the biggest star on the planet. But to become that, he went from the Jazz/Soul/R&B motowm/orbison/”wall of sound” sound of the first album, to slick three minute pop perfection songs on Born. He went from playing clubs and bars to arena’s.

Now I am not saying he ever sold out, but there were contious efforts made to sound and stage that came out of the fact that he now had and audience and that there were expectations (Dancing in the Dark, was written at specific request of his producer Landau, because Born had not obvious single.) What followed were huge hits, sales, tours….and friction.

A lot of people who had come aboard during Born in the Usa era, were people who a) quite possibly had other political and cultural refference point than Bruce (think Reagan) b) were not familiar with his previous work and c) thought of him as a pop/rock star, not serious musician. The following years saw him kinda loose his center.

Torn between serving this audience and his own artistic development, saw him split up the E-Street band, make tours with another band and release albums as Tunnel of Love, that while great music, never lived up to the hype.

Slowly he was reaching a point where he no longer was the biggest star on the planet, people kinda forgot him, and took less notice of his work. Finally he had outlived other people’s expectations.

In 1995 he put back together the E-Street band, the band he had played with since being 22 years old. And they went on tour without a record to support. They just went and played. And played for the reasons they had started all those years ago: to have fun, to get people dancing, and to make the music they wanted to make.

Since then Springsteen has found not only his muse back, but also a balance between doing “one for him, one for the band and one for the audience”. Devils and Dust sees him go folk and solo, while the Rising or Working on a Dream see him back with the band making great pop music.

Steve Jobs was able to come full circle as well, from him and Woz trying to make a dent in the universe, to him hiring John Scully to run Apple like a company should be run (Other People’s Expectations), to him getting fired and getting back to doing what he wanted to do all those years ago; make great product that personalize technology in people’s lives.

Saban Saulic, I hope, woke one morning, while getting back home from a well paying gig for some well known businessman or politician, that saw him sing songs he did not like, laugh at jokes not funny, and at his expense…and just was done with it.

It can’t have been a pretty sight, when he looked in the mirror. Knowing what he had done, and for what? Money?  He has money. Fame? He always had fame. So off with the wig, out with the fake and in with the old him. The guy who would sing for free, because he loved it and the guy who swore he would stop the minute it became a job.

Now getting past people’s expectations does not require public failure or even diminishing success,  getting fired or hitting rock bottom if we think of it from a brand or personal point of view.

All it requires is the bravery to take stock and to look at what you are doing and to ask: ” Is this why I started all those years ago?” And then not to tell lies in the mirror. It is that simple, yet that hard. Because, stockholders expect returns, employees need jobs, cars payments are due, and your kids need food on the table.

But still, if we allow ourselves to go through it, everybody has the potential to have a great third act, where we, like Bruce, Steve, Mickey Rourke, Burberry, Apple and  off course Saban Saulic, find the balance to “do one for us, one for the family/company, and one for the audience”.