The Art of Compromise

Following your passions and having artistic integrity is an important part of creative work, but sometimes it is better to give in.

Sometimes you meet someone halfway, while other times you just need to change a word or two to please your audience. Nonetheless, the point is this: Sometimes you need to compromise to reach more people.

Here are a couple of notable examples of creators who had to compromise:

Chuck Berry

Chuck Berry’s song “Johnny B. Goode” is considered one of the greatest pop songs of all time. It was released in 1958, more than half a decade before segregation would end. This is important because the song’s lyrics describe Johnny B. Goode as a “country boy”, but when he first wrote the song it said “colored boy”.

Realizing that the lyrics would limit his potential audience, he changed it to Country Boy so that it could be played on the radio. As a result, the song was embraced by more people than the original could have reached, while still keeping the core of the song the same.

Ryan Holiday

When Ryan Holiday was reading reviews for one of his books, he stumbled across a mother who said she wanted to gift the book to her son but was reluctant because of some profanity she encountered.

While some reviews are meaningless to Ryan, he recognized that was one he could act on. While cursing is not a big deal to him, he recognizes that it is to others. And while cursing is somewhat natural, it doesn’t add anything irreplaceable to his message. So in future books, Ryan no longer used profanity.

John F. Kennedy

A lot has been said about Kennedy and his seeming two-faced nature with black Americans, but those who criticize him don’t understand how progress is made.

For his Democratic Party Nomination, he campaigned and related with both Northern blacks and Southern segregationists. This seems bad until you realize that the job of politicians is literally to represent everyone. Part of America’s promise is democracy, and that means that good and bad actors alike have a say.

So instead of shunning and persecuting people you don’t agree with, you do what Kennedy did and try to get them on your side. You compromise in some areas while demanding help in others.

An example of this is when Martin Luther King Jr. was being held in a Georgia jail after participating in a sit-in at a segregated store. JFK, then a senator, made some phone calls and helped in King’s release.

It may be necessary to ask yourself “Am I being too hardheaded?” when you can’t seem to give in to the demands of others. Some pursuits require you to shut pout other’s opinions, but sometimes not letting up can make your path 10x harder than it needs to be.

Compromising does not mean giving in completely and selling your soul. You must know what you stand for, and draw a clear line in the sand.

To quote John F. Kennedy: “Compromise need not mean cowardice.”

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