Dancing guy: check out: Leadership Lessons from the Dancing Guy by Derek Sivers. In the clip, a guy dances alone to some off camera musicians. Soon after, another dancer joins him. Then a third joins and now it’s more of a thing. Eventually a crowd rushes to be included. What does this say about leadership, or as Derek Sivers blogs about, what he calls the first follower. That second guy is the reason the first guy (with the good idea, or leadership) can continue…. leadership takes risk, so does following a leader. In the beginning you are both out there on a limb on your own.

My take, I see this every day I perform in the subway. It appears no one is listening, because no one is stopping, but we don’t listen with our feet. Ears connect with my sound minutes (in most locations it’s more like seconds) before I am seen. To many people on their commuter’s way, stopping would be too much commitment than they are willing to allow. But if one does stop, it won’t take long for a second and third to join until someone moves along and then the process starts over and over again. When I add a musician to my solo gigs (a passersby with an instrument or tap dancers coerced by me to join in) well, immediately the response is more people will stop and listen. Last Friday I performed at the Grand Central mezzanine spot. Alex Lodico's group was scheduled to perform after me arrived, the drummer Neil asked if he could join me-people stopped, then Yosuke the alto saxophonist joined in, joined by Michael on the baritone, so like the dancing guy and his first follower I experienced a growing crowd and more involvement from the audience……..I had a great time

Update

on 2010-02-26 14:58 by NYC Subway Girl

check out part of the jam on a video clip that I put on youtube, it's here on my site under the video section......