Darren Herman

I attended the Dave Matthews Band concert here in New York City last night.  I’m a huge fan.

However, this post is less about the concert itself, but more about what happened.

I was about ten rows back from the stage last night when Dave came out on stage to begin the show.  He looked terrible.  Pale face, baggy eyes, and almost no voice.  2 songs in, he couldn’t hit most of the notes.   It was ugly.

Dave asked the crowd to help him out; he was obviously under the weather.  I’m sure that when they were planning the setlist half an hour before the show, he told the band he needed help.

The band pulled their weight and the crowd played a key role last night.  Everyone collectively stepped up and turned the night into a very special one.  It’s amazing what 18,000 voices sound like when singing all the words to The Song that Jane Likes or #41.

This is no different than when you are in a startup or corporation.  Your “A” game doesn’t come everyday.  No matter who you are.  You need to make sure that the team surrounding yourself is capable of picking up where you need help and if they can’t, reassemble your team.  This is extremely important.   I’m not looking for 100% skillset overlap/redundancy, but you should always have people who are strong enough that can step up.

Remember, there is no “i” in team.  If you have a solid team, there is very little that you cannot accomplish.