And, I might add, the key to a business’s success as well. People’s diverse abilities are only able to come out when you give them the freedom to act. Obviously, however, when so many talented and different individuals all start expressing themselves at the same time, what comes out is likely to sound like a confusion of noise from diverse instruments rather than an orchestra playing. The leader’s job, at some point, is to stop playing an instrument and be the conductor.

I often thought it was wrong the way conductors like Leonard Bernstein or Zubin Mehta get so much glory. What do they do, after all? The composer wrote the music; the artists perform it. The conductors are just waving a stick. But now that I run a large company, I think differently. What a job! To know when to allow an artist to solo, and when to go with the group. When to follow the music as written, and when to go with the spirit of the orchestra.

In business it’s even more complicated. We don’t even have a score to play from. Everything’s changing moment by moment, so we actually have to improvise the movements as the performance goes on. If someone can manage to coordinate all this and have it all come off, even if he’s working with the best musicians or executives in the world, maybe it’s okay to take a little bow at the end of the performance.

I’m not ready to take any bow yet. The performance is still going on, and any minute we might all go off key. With the performers I’m working with, I’m sure we’ll correct it. But you can’t risk facing the audience or taking your eye off the orchestra. Not that there yet was any orchestra when Marc first joined or for a long time thereafter. Sure, we dreamed of Carnegie Hall, but at the time we were just a little chamber music group, distributing brochures and expanding our publishing interests. Like most chamber music groups, we just loved what we were doing. Carnegie Hall was just a dream.


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