How I learned to sing and how it made me a better entrepreneur
This article is part of a series by Ananda Impact Ventures Co-Founder Johannes Weber called “Make it matter”
As a child, music was my life. I dreamt of playing the guitar like Slash, singing like Freddy Mercury and performing on stage with Madonna. My dad was a music teacher, so I had access to a classroom full of synthesisers, drums and microphones whenever I wanted. In my mind, the stage was set for me to become the biggest rock star of all time.
But things didn’t go quite as planned. My first few guitar lessons revealed only a mediocre talent, my dancing lacked rhythm, and in the school choir, I was moved two rows back when performing “Cats”. A sad state of affairs.
Eventually, my father broke it to me, “I’m sorry to say, but boy, you really can’t sing!” I reacted to this news by shutting down all my creative and musical ambitions, and channelling my energies into sports instead.
I believed that music was something for the naturally talented, for the creative, for the few blessed with a musical ear. But despite having turned my back on music, I couldn’t shake the connection I had with it. I couldn’t explain why whenever I watched a music biography like “Walk the line” (Johnny Cash), Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) or even “A star is born” (Lady Gaga), I burst into tears. There was something in me that was deeply moved by music — especially singing.
Fast forward 30 years. I had been an Impact VC for already more than a decade and I felt strongly about changing education. I didn’t enjoy my own school education, and when I saw my kids going through the same 200-year-old system I also went through, I felt strongly that I did not want them to experience the same pain, frustration and boredom that I had experienced. Around this time, I was lucky enough to run into the right bunch of people and I helped them to create what I believe is growing into one of the most innovative schools in the world — REAL School. The school’s ethos is all about real-life learning, sustainability, entrepreneurship, arts and music.
The music teacher we hired for the school turned out to be a bona fide celebrity in Brazil — Felipe Naim had won the country’s classical music version of “America’s got Talent”, and not only had a genuine passion for music, but also a skill for inspiring those around him.
One afternoon I was observing Felipe teaching my three kids to play the piano, and perhaps sensing something in me he asked me: “Johannes, do you want to learn to play the piano?”. I immediately declined. “Well then, learn to sing!”. I declined again, telling him that I couldn’t sing. He looked puzzled and said, “everyone can sing!” And so I relented, and over the space of a couple of weeks, he helped me to de-construct my favourite songs, build my confidence, and find my voice. My singing actually improved so much that it became bearable for the involuntary listeners. It also spilled over to other areas of my life. I became much calmer, more grounded, and my voice when talking to people changed — even SIRI seemed to understand me better.
A few weeks later we held an Ananda Ventures offsite get-together at my home, where I had invited the whole team round for a fireplace chat and some slow food. Felipe had just finished piano lessons with my kids, and I asked him to stay on and join us. He accepted, and as a party atmosphere developed, I came up with the idea to hold a singing competition where each person would have the opportunity to sing their favourite song while Felipe played it on the piano. As we have some very brave people at Ananda, the evening turned into a show. I sang Sinatra’s “My way”.
The next day I ran into a neighbour on the street when I was walking my kids to the school bus. Still sleep-walking I apologised for all the noise the previous night. But she didn’t seem to care. She looked at me deep in the eyes and said slowly, “Who sang My Way last night?”. It was too early to get a beating, but I wanted to be honest, so I replied: “It was me,” and she said “No way!” I loved it, and it touched my heart!”
After this experience, it began to dawn on me that it was possible to improve and even become half-decent at something that I had previously considered to be a weakness. All it had taken was courage, support, and a personal commitment to turn a passion into a life-skill.
I realised that I had been held back all those years by the fear of failure. It had been easier to give up, and to make myself believe I had no talent, rather than making myself vulnerable by committing to and working hard at a skill that hadn’t come naturally to me.
I decided to share the news that I actually could sing, with my father. And then, another revelation — he told me: “Johannes, be assured that in my 40 years as a teacher I have never told a single child anything like that. And I never will, as everyone can find their voice and can learn to sing.”
I instantly realised that I had completely misremembered what had happened. My mind had created a story of my father telling me I couldn’t sing, which was easier for me to come to terms with than committing to and working hard at a skill that didn’t come easily to me.
I wonder — how often do we tell ourselves that we can’t do things? That we’re not creative? That our ideas will never get off the ground? That we’ll never make it as an entrepreneur? Maybe it’s society that has told us this, maybe our teachers, maybe our parents, or maybe it’s just our own self-doubt and insecurities perpetuating these limiting ideas and holding us back.
Whatever the driver is, the question to ask ourselves is — do we really want these negative thoughts to constrain our lives?
It’s critical to discover what drives you, and your heart is the best compass here. My personal experience, and that of the impact founders I’ve supported throughout my work, has shown me that if you commit to something you care deeply about and work relentlessly at, you will learn from the process, and eventually turn the passion into a strength. This applies to everything from singing through to running a successful company.
At REAL School we teach kids to find their passion. Every day we have a subject called “Dreams to Reality”, which teaches children how to turn their passion into something concrete, and then eventually into a superpower. This can be anything from a piece of art, an NFT — to sell this piece of art — or a stage performance.
As adults, I think we can also learn a lot from this programme. We can learn about how to reconnect with the passion within us. We can learn about how to turn these passions into goals, and how to turn these goals into realities. But, like the pupils at REAL School, we need to accept that skills can be challenging to master, and that our goals may be difficult to achieve. We need to try, fail, ask for feedback and support, and then try again. Only in this way will we find success.
We are taught as children to think “I am not good at this” or “I can’t do this”, but these statements are missing a key word: “yet”. It makes a huge difference if we change our thinking instead to: “I’m not good at this YET”, and “I can’t do this YET”. That’s the growth mindset in action.
Here are a few questions that I found particularly helpful when thinking about my passions — just remember to answer from your heart, and not to let your head get in the way.
- What would I do if all barriers [for example money/rejection/your parents’ opinions] were removed?
- “What do I enjoy doing so much that I would even consider paying others for the freedom to do it all the time?”
- What do I really want?
A superpower is not something you’re born with — it’s something you are passionate about, something you commit to, and something you work hard at developing.
At Ananda Impact Ventures we help founders turn their passions into rock-star impact businesses. If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch.
Johannes Weber is Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Ananda Impact Ventures
