Drake’s Grammy Speech Was Brilliant Career Advice. Need Proof? Just Look at This 90’s Video Game.

Everyone loves an epic mic drop.

If you didn’t catch the Grammy’s last night, Toronto based rapper Drake executed a near perfect mic drop.

Some context is required here. Drake, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino refused to perform at the ceremony as protest for how hip hop has been treated by music’s biggest awards show.

So it was somewhat surprising when Drake popped out to collect the trophy for “Best Rap Song.” Drake was only a few minutes into his acceptance speech when the Grammy’s killed his mic and cut to commercial.

“I want to take this opportunity while I’m up here to just talk to all the kids that are watching this, aspiring to do music. All my peers that make music from their heart that do things pure and tell the truth, I wanna let you know we’re playing in an opinion-based sport not a factual-based sport. So it’s not the NBA where at the end of the year you’re holding a trophy because you made the right decisions or won the games. This is a business where sometimes it is up to a bunch of people that might not understand what a mixed race kid from Canada has to say… or a brother from Houston right there, my brother Travis. You’ve already won if you have people who are singing your songs word for word, if you are a hero in your hometown. If there is people who have regular jobs who are coming out in the rain, in the snow, spending their hard-earned money to buy tickets to come to your shows, you don’t need this right here, I promise you, you already won.”

On the surface, this is an epic mic drop and a middle finger to the whole idea of awards shows. But a layer down, it’s the great career advice.

The Dangers of Looking to the Side Rather Than Ahead

One a (fairly) recent episode of The Consultant and the Millennial Podcast, my co-host Haydn Shaw told the story of a rental car company who became obsessed with beating Enterprise, the industry leader.

Long story short, the company never surpassed Enterprise in raw sales, and dropped in profitability. A whopping chunk of their resources were going to trying to be #1, rather than focusing on who they were.

I witnessed the worst CEO I ever worked for commit a similar blunder, focusing on the competition rather than the core mission or product. Now let me say that part of the problem was just the fact that this leader had no buy in from the employees. He was an incredibly odd guy. A couple of days a week, he wore Crocs with his suit pants. I’m not kidding. Not that physical appearance is everything, but if you’re supposed to dress for the job you want, this guy really wanted to be a YMCA lifeguard. His sense of style was a pretty good match for his interpersonal skills.

The CEO got us all together and set up a huge five year goal. He didn’t explain WHY we wanted to hit this goal. Nor did he cut back on organizational busywork to the goal could get accomplished. This CEO famously set 51 goals for one year, with 39 labeled “Priority A.” So, the 52nd goal was now a goal that borderlined on absurdity.

I can’t prove it, but my best guess is that the CEO needed this goal personally. I can’t for the life of me figure out where it came from, except that he saw a similar organization putting large numbers on the board, and felt that he needed to do something similar.

How Envying the Competition Killed a Blockbuster Video Game

When I was in jr. high, Duke Nukem 3D was a coveted PC and console game. Coveted because most kids parents wouldn’t allow them to play it due to the level of violence and profane humor. Acquiring a copy was only possible through the help of an older sibling who could drive. Like many things that are contraband, the obstacles only increased the collective hunger. Duke Nukem 3D sold millions of copies.

The sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, should have been a functional mint. Throw in some new weapons and bad guys and let the fans experience another chapter of Duke’s story. But rather than a stack of Cash, game publisher 3D Realms failed to finish the sequel for 13 years. This was mainly because studio owner George Broussard was obsessed with putting out a better game than the competition, according to Wired.

But because the technology kept getting better, Broussard was on a treadmill. He’d see a new game with a flashy graphics technique and demand the effect be incorporated into Duke Nukem Forever. “One day George started pushing for snow levels,” recalls a developer who worked on Duke Nukem Forever for several years starting in 2000. Why? “He had seen The Thing” — a new game based on the horror movie of the same name, set in the snowbound Antarctic — “and he wanted it.” The staff developed a running joke: If a new title comes out, don’t let George see it. When the influential shoot-’em-up Half-Life debuted in 1998, it opened with a famously interactive narrative sequence in which the player begins his workday in a laboratory, overhearing a coworker’s conversation that slowly sets a mood of dread. The day after Broussard played it, an employee told me, the cofounder walked into the office saying, “Oh my God, we have to have that in Duke Nukem Forever.”

Broussard’s jealousy and on-upmanship literally killed a hit video game, and then his entire company. Broussard was also sued for nearly $3 million. All because he just couldn’t pull the trigger and ship an instant cash cow for thirteen consecutive years.

There’s a negative stereotype that all people in business care about is money. But in my experience, some of the worst things that can happen in business (layoffs, mistreating employees and customers) are often because something matters more than money. And that thing is usually ego.

This week, we can all be better by taking Drake’s advice to avoid the Duke Nukem trap. Does someone need what you make or do? Will they fork over their hard earned dollars for it?

If the answers are “yes,” you’re lucky. This proves your work, even if it’s not that glamorous, matters.

The moment may come when you’re tempted to get jealous of the competition. Or measure yourself against them. Not only is this counterproductive, but it also robs you of valuable time you could be using to improve your team, your own skill set or your long term goals.