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An informal, stream-of-consciousness reflection on business ideas, events and issues in modern business, modern life and with some specifics to the web-software industry by Paul Tomori, Internet Entrepreneur

True Talent... A Clear But Smokey Example By Paul Tomori Monday, June 29, 2009 at 11:52:34 (EDT) I know I am in the internet business and some of you may think my music analogies are a bit odd, but hey, this is my blog. In my continuing pursuit of looking for true talent... true quality... I have a small example that fits nicely into my recent blog posts. I was watching a little bit of the Michael Jackson coverage on CNN on the weekend and there was a spot where a news anchor asks Motown singer, Smokey Robinson to sing a few bars of his favorite Michael Jackson song. How fitting for him to pick "Never can say goodbye...". It was totally impromptu, there was no instrumentation, no "wait a second so I can clear my throat and get my note". Just like that... Smokey broke into song in that distinctive voice of his. Immediately after the clip, CNN played a young Michael Jackson singing the same song fronting his band, and guess what: without any music to give him context, Smokey Robinson had matched the exact key and pitch of the song! It's impressive if a person can sing on pitch. It's more impressive if they can find their starting note from some instrument and then break into song in the right key (that's called "relative pitch"). But Smokey found his key and sang on perfect pitch without any instrumental help. To know your notes like the rest of us know our colours is an extremely rare ability. It's called "absolute pitch". Ladies and gentlemen. THAT is true talent. The world needs more of this and we need to recognize it and reward it. We need more powers of discrimination when it comes to separating the wheat from the chaff. Return To Blog Index