If you’ve found a way to express yourself fully and well, and
are reasonably satisfied with your pace and performance, but
you don’t feel you’ll get very far in your present position, it may
be that you’re in sync with yourself, but you’re out of sync with
your environment—your partner, company, or organization.
Herb Alpert said, “I used to record for a major company.
And I didn’t like the way I was being treated. I was sort of being
fed through their computer. And it just seemed like they were
on the wrong track.... I had this spark of an idea for Tijuana
Brass, which involved overdubbing the trumpet, which I was
experimenting with in my own little garage studio at home.
They said it was impossible, that it violated union regulations,
because I’d be putting some musician out of work. Well, they
missed the point altogether. So I just decided that when I had
my own company, the artist would be the heartbeat of the com-
pany and his needs would come first.”
Alpert and Jerry Moss went on to found A&M Records,
which is legendary for its fine treatment of artists, although their
then partner Gil Friesen said, “A&M has a certain reputation for
being artist oriented and having a sort of family atmosphere, but
it’s nothing we consciously do. It isn’t calculated.... Actually, I
think you do it by not doing it, by not managing very much.”
Alpert’s decision to start his own company in order to create
the kind of environment he wanted to work in was as ultimately
sensible as it was seemingly radical: he and A&M became ma-
jor industry powers.
In the same spirit, Gloria Anderson founded her own news-
paper. She said, “Miami Today was my first opportunity to do
things my way, and I’m very proud of it. But when I realized
that my partner didn’t share my vision and never would, I de-
cided to move on and do something on my own.”
On Becoming a Leader