So, immediately after Kendrick Lamar's lost the Grammy win about a month ago, I was completely baffled at how this could be the case and had to download Macklemore's The Heist to make sure I wasn't completely crazy. While the unbelievable boundaries that Kendrick pushed with his GKMC album seemed to be unparalleled this year, there could be a possibility that I completely missed how much better Macklemore's album was. I heard a couple of tracks off of it on the radio and generally overall liked them. However, after going through all of them and listening a second time, I just didn't get it. While I admit that the album is above quality work, I just couldn't see how anyone who could consider themselves a connoisseur of hip hop would rank that over GKMC. Macklemore even admitted as much, as he texted Kendrick after to let him know that even HE thought he was robbed (very classy move on Macklemore's part, BTW). Overall, the loss by Kendrick at the Grammy's offered many lessons that I think we could all take in consideration for our lives.
THE BEST DOESN'T ALWAYS WIN
I know we all would like to think we live in a fair world, and if you work hard and do what is asked of you, you will be successful. Hogwash. There are so many different influences and prejudices that people have of which you may have no idea. We live in a world in which people have very ingrained beliefs about others based on how they were raised and their specific life experiences. For this reason, you may be put in a situation in which you may be the better candidate for a promotion or another job, but because they just don't "connect" with you, you could lose out on it. By understanding this simple fact in life, you could continue to have a positive outlook on the situation by knowing that you didn't lose because you had an inferior performance or did poor quality work, but because the situation was not geared in your favor. Now, this isn't to say that all situations are like this, and sometimes you do lose because you suck, but this just helps keeps things in perspective that negative outcomes are not always the results of negative inputs if there are ancillary influences that can skew the results. This will help you keep an positive outlook on your road to success.
THERE ARE ALWAYS THINGS OUTSIDE OF YOUR CONTROL
Kendrick had no control over who was judging him that day. Needless to say, if the judges were a group of individuals who truly listen to hip hop on a regular basis and understand that what Kendrick Lamar created was special and only comes around every 5-6 years or so in the hip hop world, this would've been a no-brainer. However, the judges had backgrounds in all different genres of music and I would guess the majority rarely listen to hip hop, if ever. Why one would let people vote on a genre that they are not truly experts in is confusing to me. It's like having NFL coaches vote on who's the most valuable NBA player. They are both sports, right? It's utterly preposterous. For that reason, however, there were things that Kendrick Lamar just had no control over. This is very comparable to life in which the person who has to make a decision on your career or the various circumstances you are put in throughout life are in no way controlled by you. You may not have the same contacts and connections as someone else applying for the same position. You may not have gone to the same Ivy league school and worked on your golf game at the age of seven as some others who may be more "chum" with the boss. You can't control this and have to remember to continue to work hard on those things you can while accepting and not dwelling on those that you cannot.
DON'T LET UNFAIRNESS GET YOU DOWN AND STOP YOU FROM MOVING ON
Often, I will hear about individuals who are passed over for a promotion and immediately quit their job because they feel they were wronged. While, there may be instances in which this is the right thing to do, it often comes across as extremely petty and childish. If you weren't considering leaving your current job before missing out on a promotion, why do it immediately afterwards? If this is your 3rd "passing over," that's a different story, but if it's your first, try a different approach. As Kendrick Lamar responded to the questions of whether he was robbed or not, he was very gracious in his response and said Macklemore had a great album and was as deserving of the award as anybody (something I'm sure Kanye could learn from). You can demonstrate this same type of class by accepting when things don't go your way and instead try to learn as much as possible of how you could've changed the outcome for the next go-around. What could you have done better? What could you have done to counter or mitigate those things that were outside of your control? By consistently analyzing what you could've done to put yourself in a different situation, you are being proactive in planning ways to make sure this never happens again. This is a much more effective and impactful strategy than to just quit or sulk. Anyone could do that.
Overall, Kendrick's loss was personal to me, as I felt it was another indication that preferential prejudice still exist in 2014 - even among individuals whom you think would be more open-minded based on the industry in which they work. I was inspired, however, to see how much one can learn from Kendrick response and attitude, as he demonstrates the resolve of someone who knows he is talented and will not be denied. For this reason, instead of sulking and crying foul the next time something doesn't go your way unfairly, use this situation as fuel to ignite an even deeper desire and drive for you to prove others wrong. I'm sure Kendrick is, and I can't wait for his next album to see its results.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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