…today’s secret…Barbershopping.

Singing barbershop style is a “good kind” of crazy.

How else would you describe a quartet of four people splicing their different voices together in such an ambitious way?

Barbershoppers choose a melody. One of the four leads. A tenor then harmonies above the melody while the base harmonies below and the baritone fills in all the tricky stuff above and below. Something like that.

The result of these four voices reinforcing each other is a genre of music that has left musical fingerprints on the world for centuries.

Please, do not think of a barbershop quartet as four guys just singing without musical instruments. Barbershopping is complicated. Takes talent. Takes commitment. Takes time. Takes perseverance.

And another thing, the barbershop style of music is no more associated with barbershops any more than Spain is associated with the Spanish flu. Yes, there is a small connecting thread but no where near its historical reality.

Just like your organization, a barbershop quartet is a collection of individuals who bind together to achieve a mission.

Barbershop missions are two fold – to have fun and entertain people. They make themselves and others happy.

You might think your mission has a little more grit to it because you are giving people hope and genuine encouragement that their future will be better than their past.

Point taken. However, you might want to take a little something from all those barbershop quartets.

“The objective of EVERY organization should be to make someone happy.”

Think about it. There was some person in your past life that believed in you more than you believed in yourself. They became an important person to you and made you happy.

Everyone needs a person like that.

“Hello Ma Baby”…are you making anyone happy these days?