The famous 1960’s rock promoter, Bill Graham once said about The Grateful Dead, “They’re not the best at what they do, they’re the only ones who do what they do.”
A formula that served “The Dead” well for nearly five decades.
Were “The Dead” the best musicians or songwriters or singers out there? Hardly. But they had a way of piling it all together, that created this very unique experience to an equally unique (and huge) fan base.
Compare that model to say, yet another one-hit wonder, singing the same third-rate manufactured bubble gum pop as everyone else, then wondering why nobody cares…
It’s good to be good at your job. It’s better to be irreplaceable.
One example they provide is a cardiac specialty hospital. For all surgeries they have a team dedicated to opening the chest, different teams that perform the procedure, and yet another team that closes the wounds. The catch is that the opening and closing teams are not physicians, but rather normal people who have been trained to do ONE THING. As a result, their complication rates and financial burden are both shockingly lower than the American average.
