Some time ago, I had a conversation with a jazz musician, who I’ve known for a long time. That was back when I published the question of the month. Anyway, our discussion went like this:
Dr. Dillof: I understand that you have a question.
Joe: Hey, Dr. D., what’s happening?
Dr. Dillof: Is that your question? Do you really intend “What’s happening?” to be the question of the month? Don’t get me wrong; it’s not a bad question.
Joe: No, actually my question is, why do you call your new company, Sherlock & Zen?
Dr. Dillof: Glad you asked. It represents an effort to combine incisive analysis, represented by Sherlock Holmes, with deep intuition, represented by Zen Buddhism. What I mean is that I’m seeking to combine western brain and eastern brain thinking.
Joe: West and East? Hmm, I never heard it put that way, but OK, I’m hip to your jive. Well, let me ask you, Sherlock, what would happen were I were to combine west and east?
Dr. Dillof: Then you would get insights that are both incisive and deep.
Joe: OK, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you about my own particular situation.
Dr. Dillof: Sure, please proceed.
Joe: When I’m with the other members of my jazz group, we have a quarterly business meeting. We think long-term business strategy, and professional development, as well. Anyway, we’re at a crossroads. We’ve been playing together since our early twenties and we’re each about to turn forty, and we feel stuck.
Dr. Dillof: How so?
Joe: I mean, we’re still the house band for a Holiday Inn, and we still doing Weddings and bar mitzvahs. Look, we don’t mind those gigs, but we’re beginning to think that we missed the boat long ago. Well anyway, when my musical colleagues and I ponder these questions, we try our best to be analytical. We ain’t stoned, ain’t drunk; just stone cold sober. But when we’re jamming together, which we love to do, we’re intuitive. Did I get that right?
Dr. Dillof: Sounds right.
Joe: So my question to you, Doc, is why would I wish to combine analysis with intuition, when making a decision?
Dr. Dillof: What type of decision are you’re trying to make.
Joe: OK, I left a few details out. We’re just starting to get gigs in jazz clubs in New York city and Chicago and…
Dr. Dillof: Wow, you didn’t mention that! It sure that sounds promising. Why, then, is that a problem?
Joe: The problem is that, our agent got us an offer to play this jazz club in Hamburg, Germany. It involves not an occasional gig, but playing six days a week, for an entire year! And after that year, we could renew the contract for a second year.
Dr. Dillof: Hamburg? Ha! Ha! You’re kidding right? I mean, didn’t the Beatles play Hamburg for two years, early on in their career?
Joe: Uh, huh, way early on. Ringo wasn’t even in the band. But analogies only go so far, because jazz isn’t nearly as popular as rock and roll, or country music, or rap or hip-hop. I mean, we might return home, after two years, and find ourselves back to square one. And the Beatles were in still in their early twenties when they completed the Hamburg gig, and returned to Britain. We’re already in our early forties.
Dr. Dillof: Harlan Sanders was 65 when he started KFC.
Joe: Yeah, well, I suppose there’s still hope. Anyway, there are good reasons to stay in the States and equally good reasons to take off for Europe. Are you saying, then, that some sort of Eastern intuition, coupled with the Sherlock part, is going to show us the light? The thing is that my head tells me one thing, but my heart tells me something else.
Dr. Dillof: What does each tell you?
Joe: My head tells me that if we’re starting to get gigs in New York and Chicago, we should stay put. But my heart tells me to take the chance and convince the guys to take the gig in Germany.
Dr. Dillof: Why, then, don’t you follow your heart?
Joe: Because it’s been wrong before, all too often, and it’s often got me into real trouble. Yeah, I’m still paying alimony to my first wife because I followed my heart, although I suppose Dr. Freud would say that I followed another organ as well.
Dr. Dillof: It makes sense that you’d be skeptical of advice coming from your heart. Rather than following your heart, you might, as a wise man once recommended, give it a hearing. In other words, allow it to speak. Allow it to make the best case for accepting the Hamburg gig, but examine it very, very, very critically too. It’s not an easy thing to do, but it can be done.
Joe: That was three “verys” Doc. Hmm, my heart to the left of me, my head to the right — Stuck in the middle with you!
Dr. Dillof: Sounds like I’ve heard that song before, but not with those lyrics. But let me ask you, playing jazz six days a week with your crew, I’d imagine that with all that playing and playing and playing, that you’d become a bit better. No?
Joe: We’re real good now. Two of us are Julliard graduates, and the other three guys are just natural… Yeah, we’re accomplished musicians. But with that much playing, eight hours a day, six days a week, we’d probably get a lot better, maybe five times better. OK, Dr. D. Thank you. Next time you hear from me, it will take the form of an old fashioned postcard, either from my sweet home Chicago or from Hamburg.
Mark Dillof
Dr. Mark Dillof is president of Sherlock & Zen, LLC, Business Consulting. In addition to extensive business experience — including having worked as a management consultant, stockbroker and executive coach — he taught philosophy and psychology for many years, wrote several books, has had a private practice as a consulting philosopher, and has entertained as a professional magician, among other things.