One of my responsibilities as a bass guitar player is keeping the beat. The bass guitar is a rhythm instrument (as are drums and other percussive instruments) and, as a bass player, if I fail to keep the beat, I am not doing my job within the band. Sometimes, the beat is up tempo; other times, it is slow; some times, the rhythm has 4/4 timing; other times, it is 3/4 timing; etc. Whatever the beat, my job is to keep it going from the beginning, through the middle, until the end of the song. If I don’t, the “bottom falls out,” literally. Life, like music, has a rhythm. Some days are happy, up beat days, when everything seems to go the right way. Other days are darker, with a back beat that seems foreboding. It is my duty, as the co-owner of a small business that employs highly skilled workers, to ensure the beat is steady, meaning that, whatever is going on in everyone’s personal lives, our clients’ work does not suffer. Keeping the beat to the rhythm of life is just as important as the bass guitar’s role in every band. Drum roll…
Keeping the beat in business is crucial as part of the juggling act of working on current business, looking for new business, and managing everything. I often feel like I have to keep the beat in terms of nudging clients along because I know how many beats there are in one of our projects and if no one counts off (the drummer’s responsibility) and gets the song going, it isn’t going to happen and there will be no song. My challenge is to know how fast a beat to use. I want to get things moving quickly, as when we are on the cusp of being retained. There are so many things to be done. But, I don’t want to conflict with the rhythm our client is comfortable with. Some things take time to happen and knowing when to slow the tempo down is important. Finding the groove is not easy, but is a part of our existence. So, as I sit here waiting for a new client to return my call, I find myself tapping my foot, nervously, wondering what, if anything, I should do to keep the beat.
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