My own personal awareness was awakened through music. Specifically, ‘The Last Resort‘ by The Eagles, and then ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ by Joni Mitchell released in 1970. Bob Dylan did a version in 1973, Amy Grant in 1994, and then the one I grew to love by Counting Crows in 2002.

And while the words of both of those songs are very hard hitting, they’re largely socially palatable (perhaps during their time it was different?). I’m certain there were some that may have not agreed with the lyrics, but there wasn’t anything to cause you to stop and pay attention if the song had been playing while you were doing your weekly grocery shopping.

Enter Lil Dicky

Enter Lil Dicky and ‘Earth’. Released on April 19, 2019, three days prior to Earth Day (all proceeds from the song will apparently be donated to different environmental charities in collaboration with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation).

The music video is embedded below, and if you haven’t heard / watched the full version, you’re in for a treat.

He collaborated with 30 different well known human beings, including Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Shawn Mendes, Halsey, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brendon Urie, Charlie Puth, Miley Cyrus, Meghan Trainor, Joel Embiid, Tory Lanez, John Legend, Psy, Bad Bunny, Kris Wu, Backstreet Boys, and Kevin Hart.

It’s everything an Earth Song has never ever been before. Highly entertaining. Engaging. Arresting. Non-Child-Friendly language. Amusing. Clever. Cute. Cheesy. Inaccurate. In fact, it’s the Earth Song you’d expect a guy called Lil Dicky to write. And yet, somewhere in there is a truck load of genius.

Who’s it aimed at?

When I first heard the song I shared it within my own network, asking for opinion on what age group people thought it was targeted at? I can’t imagine anyone over 25 listening to it a second time, and surely any half alert parent isn’t going to be happy with their younger children watching or listening? (my network felt the same).

And boom. There’s Lil Dicky’s genius or blind luck. The sweet spot. Teenagers love it. My 16 year old knows every line by heart, and my 19 year old has watched the video more times than she can count. I hear the song at least twice each day in my home. Heck, I even caught myself singing along the other day.

Well done and good luck to Lil Dicky. I hope he gets the credit he deserves, and more than that, I hope the planet benefits from a catchy tune, some clever lyrics, brilliant collaboration, and a generation that’s tuned in to a message the entire world needs to hear.

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This would always open up an engaging conversation about whether everyone was talented? In a business world in which there is a large focus on ‘talent’, the need to claim the label ‘talented’ is pretty intense. I understand that need. When the company you work for is assembling the most talented people in an industry, your future success relies on your inclusion in that pool of talented people.

Personally I don’t think everyone is talented. Even when you open the spectrum of what you can be talented at as wide as you possibly can, it’s still only a small minority of people who are truly talented in whatever endeavour or pursuit you focus on. I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of us are pretty average, and I don’t think that average is something you should be ashamed of. It’s a conversation for another day, but this idea of talent only became important, in my opinion, because clever consultants convinced business that it was a very important thing, and they were the only ones truly talented enough to help them navigate this new space (you can apply this same theory to innovation, diversity, efficiency, etc).

The Talent Stack

Enter Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame), in an article by Mikael Cho, ‘Why you don’t have to be great to build a great company‘. Adams suggests that the the correct collection of mediocre skills can serve you just as well as being highly talented in one area. He calls it the ‘Talent Stack’.

Even if you aren’t great at any one thing, you can still have a strong ‘talent stack’ capable of creating something exceptional. The quality of your ‘talent stack’ is less related to you being great at any one skill and more related to your unique mix of skills that makes you valuable.

The Talent Stack that enabled Scott Adams to build the highly successful Dilbert, looks like this:

• Writing talent (simple and persuasive, but not Pulitzer-worthy)
• Business skills (Good, not amazing)
• Marketing and PR (good, not great)
• Social media skills (mediocre)
• Persuasion skills (above average, but not Trump-like)

I do like the idea that it can also be the combination of one’s skills (even if they’re mediocre), and how you use that combination that determines your success. I certainly don’t think the one approach is more superior than the other. There’s room for both. It does, however, take an enormous amount of pressure off of those people who so desperately want to be inside the ‘talent pool’.

Talent is certainly a ‘thing’, but it’s definitely not the only thing.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

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