The Blade

Singer, songwriter, and winner of 20 Grammys, Bruce Springsteen often wrote songs about his father Douglas’ career. “My dad had a difficult life, a hard struggle all the time at work. I’ve always felt like I’m seeking his revenge,”[1] Bruce recalls. In a separate interview, he lamented, “My father worked a lot of jobs that take everything from you and give you barely nothing back. Some people get a chance to change the world, and other people, they get the chance to make sure the world don’t fall apart.”[2]

The impact of disappointment at work was devastating to Douglas. He would cut the lights off in the house at nine o’clock at night and sit with a six-pack and cigarette. Bruce explains, “… as I got a little older, I’d watch my father, how he’d come home from work and just sit in the kitchen all night like there was something dying inside him, or like he’d never had a chance to live… .”[3]

I wonder what Douglas Springsteen thought about while sitting in his kitchen with the lights off and a drink in his hand? Did he think about quitting? Did he think about his son Bruce’s future? Did he think about starting a business?

We don’t know what Douglas dreamed about at that kitchen table for 18 years. But we know what action he took to deal with his frustration: he ran. He got the heck out of Dodge. He moved his family to California to start a new life, with the exception of Bruce, who remained behind in New Jersey. Bruce once said of his father’s move: “It was a big trip, took a lot of nerve, a lot of courage, having grown up in my little town in New Jersey.” Douglas lived out the reminder of his life in California until he passed away in 1998.

So Douglas ran away to deal with his frustrations, and therefore, many of Bruce’s songs are about running away. His songs imply the main option for escaping frustration to find freedom is to run – whether it’s in a car, a bus, or it’s picking up and going to another place. His songs name 47 different highways, streets, and roads: Highway 9, Dixie Highway, Turnpike, Tenth Avenue, just to name a few. The below lyrics show us Bruce’s running mentality:

“Thunder Road” from the 1975 album Born to Run:

“Well the night’s busting open,

These two lanes will take us anywhere…”

 

“Born to Run” from the 1975 album Born to Run:

“Someday girl, I don’t know when, we’re gonna get to that place,

Where we really want to go, and we’ll walk in the sun.

But ‘til then, tramps like us, baby, we were born to run.”

 

“Dancing in the Dark” from the 1984 album Born in the U.S.A.:

“Man, I ain’t getting nowhere,

I’m just living in a dump like this.

There’s something happening somewhere,

Baby I just know that there is.”

 

“Hungry Heart” from the 1980 album The River:

“Like a river that don’t know where it’s flowing,

I took a wrong turn, and I just kept going.”

Here’s the irony of Bruce’s lyrics about running away. In his own life, instead of running, Bruce turned inward, focusing on his music. “Music became my purpose in life. …. Music gave me something. It was never just a hobby. It was a reason to live,”[4] he says.

Without music, Bruce would most likely have run. That’s what his father did. That’s what he sang about. But unlike the characters in his songs, Bruce didn’t run because of his fears, frustrations, and emotional conflicts. Instead, Springsteen “objectified” or “forced out” his conflicts through expression and creativity.

My career followed a similar path as Springsteen’s (ok, not nearly as interesting, talent-filled, famous, or dramatic!). I felt trapped working for a bank, much the same way Douglas Springsteen probably felt working in Jersey. I despised the top-down management style and having to implement someone else’s policies. But like Bruce, I turned my frustration into creation, into making something valuable that solves a problem, which became industry research firm First Research. Angst became my Muse. Starting First Research calmed me down and allowed me to discharge my intense feelings into my work.

The founder of hugely successful financial software firm Sageworks, Brian Hamilton, did the same thing. He also worked for a bank right out of college, but he didn’t stick it out there quite as long as I did. He credits his quest for entrepreneurship to an experience that occurred while working for this Connecticut bank.

“I went to work for a lady named Rose in the bank’s credit department, and she was all over me… I’m never going to be in that environment again. Micromanaged in an environment, you know, 8:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m., or whatever it was . . . I don’t know how to explain it.  Like, change ‘that’ into ‘those.’ It ruined my confidence completely.”

The result was that Brian quit working for the bank and started Sageworks. He credits Rose for inspiring Sageworks by frustrating him.

“You think about your life, man; it’s just like the Forrest Gump movie. It’s the things that affect you in the smallest way that will just push you in totally different directions…So, Amen for Rose.”

I’ve met hundreds of entrepreneurs who were inspired the same way Brian and I were. So if you’re stuck in a dead-end job, consider channeling those frustrations into starting a company.

 

“Born down in a dead man’s town,

The first kick I took was when I hit the ground.

You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much,

‘Til you spend half your life just covering up.”

“Born in the USA,” by Bruce Springsteen

 

 

[1] Born to Run, p. 165

[2] Glory Days. Dave Marsh 1987, p. 87

[3] Runaway Dream, p. 22

[4] Runaway Dream, p. 24

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