How To Rock Your Business: Advice From The American Idol Judges

Make the song your own

The American Idol judges sound like a stuck record after a while. Without fail, they keep telling the contestants to make each song their own.

Every. Single. Time.

It’s annoying. But they’re right.

A contestant may have a beautiful voice and the song may be pitch-perfect. From a technical standpoint, everything is right. Yet, the performance can still suck. Big time. If the contestant hasn’t made the song their own, the performance overall is lacking. It’s bland and boring.

So, what the hell does it mean to make something your own?

Back in the day (er, round about 2002), I was still working in the field of Occupational Psychology, lecturing at our local university. In the course of my work, I came across some ground-breaking research in my field that blew me away. It wasn’t exactly new research, but it hadn’t received much recognition. I wrote a paper summarising the research and its implications, hoping to submit it to a journal and spread the word about it.

Before submitting my paper, I spoke to one of my colleagues and showed him my draft paper. I was quite new to the department and didn’t have much experience in submitting articles to journals. What he said to me in our subsequent conversation changed the way I viewed not only academic research, but all ways of expressing oneself creatively, including (and especially) business.

The conversation went something like this:

Prof: So, this is a really excellent synthesis of the research in the field, Taryn. Really well done.
Me (preening): Thank you.
Prof: But, it’s not suitable for a journal.
Me (deflated): Oh….
Prof: You’ve told me what these other guys think. But what I want to know is, what do you think?
Me: Well, I completely agree with them. So, I think what they think.
Prof: Yes. That’s fine. And?
Me: ??
Prof: Even if you’re communicating other people’s ideas, and even if you agree completely with those ideas, there will always be something that only you can add – perhaps a new angle to consider, or an additional viewpoint. Whatever it is, there will always be room for your own unique expression to come through. Sometimes you may have to spend some time looking for it – it won’t always be glaringly obvious, but it will always be there. And it is up to you to find it, because that will make all the difference.

Who knew? University Professors and American Idol judges have more in common than they realise! Because of course what he was telling me was that, while my writing was perfect in a technical sense, it lacked that special something. I hadn’t yet made that article my own.

So, I went away and thought about what I thought, about what I could uniquely contribute even to a plain ol’ summary of existing research. And I found it. I rewrote the paper from the new angle, submitted it and had it accepted with only a few minor wording changes (I am the champion of long sentences, but even verbose academics draw the line somewhere, and I had to re-write a couple of paragraphs…).

Now, since you may not be familiar with the process of journal submission, let me just say that having an article accepted straight away with only minor changes represents nothing short of a miracle in a world where outright rejections are common. For the lucky few who don’t get rejected immediately, years of countless rounds of revisions follow. It’s a long and brutal process.

Yet I sailed through easily and smoothly. Thanks to my more experienced colleague’s advice, I rocked that article. And, during my short (yet, illustrious, I like to think!) academic career, I rocked a few more in exactly the same way. My success rate for journal submission, especially for a fairly junior lecturer, was exemplary.

Rock your business

This advice transcends the American Idol stage. It transcends academia. It’s applicable every time you write a piece of marketing copy for your business, every time you create a product, regardless of what form that product takes.

You can make something that is exactly like something someone else has already done. Or you can spend some time searching for that little something extra that represents your unique contribution to the world.

Whatever you do, you can make it your own.

Rock your business. Simon Cowell will be proud.