(Originally posted to TribLocal on 09/28/10)

Last Tuesday my husband saw Roger Waters at the United Center with a few of his friends. He was: amazed, captivated, enthralled, altered…in a word, it was to him, IMPORTANT.

You should know that my husband is a professional musician. He makes his living playing the drums in bars and clubs, for corporate events, weddings and parties. Music is his livelihood. So when he realized that the two of us could see the show (him for the second time in two days, the first for me) on Thursday, the words barely came out of his mouth before he was on the computer checking for seat availability. I was: hesitant, unconvinced, apathetic…in a word, CHEAP. I didn’t think that it was worth the money to see this show when I was never a big fan of Pink Floyd or The Wall in the first place. But my husband really wanted to share this experience with me. Therefore, my aspiration of being a supportive spouse trumped my desire to scalp my ticket and spend the money on my guilty pleasure – coordinated office supplies.

About five minutes after the start of the show, I knew this was money well spent. From start to finish, I too, was captivated. I now have become one of “those” people who talk endlessly about the show to anyone who will listen…or to anyone without an easy escape. It was just that good. While reflecting on the show I came to realize there are lessons to be learned here, possibly beyond what Roger (yeah, I call him Roger) hoped his audience would experience. With that, I present to you, “Career Lessons Learned from Roger Waters, The Wall”.

1)      Surround yourself with people who support you, and can help you realize your vision. Everyone, from the musicians on stage to the sound and audio engineers and the ‘wall construction team’ performed flawlessly. This was a BIG production and at any time, anything could have gone wrong. If there were problems, the audience was completely unaware.

2)      When it comes to self-branding, stick with what works. The Wall was a major influence on millions of people 30 years ago. Can you imagine if Roger decided that in 2010, he was going to abandon The Wall, and record a concept album called “Overpriced Corporate Coffee Shops”?

3)      Find your passion. From start to finish, I was overwhelmed at Roger’s passion and emotion that played out in every song. He was exposed in a way that most of us never will be in our working world. You could reach out and feel the passion he has for his music and his message.

4)      Keep your technical skills updated. This was a technically perfect show. Roger and his army of artists utilized digital video, computers, animation, puppets, engineered mechanisms and the most up to date audio systems with impeccable timing. The show from 30 years ago was bridged and enhanced with modern artistry in a way that was impressive to a younger audience without offending or repelling his original fans.

5)      Keep your other professional skills updated, too. Roger is 67 years old, yet from where I was watching, he looked to be in peak form. He ran around the stage, interacted with the other musicians, acted scenes and sang his heart out the entire show, with only a 20 minute intermission. He looked great and he sounded better. I needed an intermission more than he did.

6)      Be unpredictable, in positive ways. I walked in to the United Center expecting a concert but what I saw was performance art. The good kind. His songs came to life for me and for the first time, I got it. Blowing up an airplane was also unpredictable, and quite crowd-pleasing.

7)      Take time to do good things. Roger has introduced an ‘audience-participation’ element to this tour called The Fallen Loved Ones Project. It enables anyone to submit a picture and details of loved ones who were killed in war. The pictures are displayed via video during the tour, in remembrance. It isn’t overtly political; the message is one of honorarium. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the entire arena during this display.

8)      Grow your network. Join his email list! Friend him on Facebook! Yes, Roger has embraced social networking and you should, too.

9)      Thank those who are advocates of your career. When The Wall was over (literally, with OSHA and lawyers watching), the musicians came out on stage and graced the audience with a really cool, kind of rag-tag ‘traveling band’ performance with all acoustic instruments. Then they waved. And waved. And clapped at the audience, as we clapped at them. It was sincere. The musicians were personally connecting with the audience, and I felt appreciated for being there.

10)  Be proactive and hands-on when solving problems. I read a few articles about the behind-the-scenes production and was amused/surprised/impressed to learn that Roger was very hands-on for things such as sound and lighting decisions. At one point, he asked a technician to dim the lights by 10%. Some may call that micro-managing, but I think it’s great that he is that involved in this big thing that has his name plastered all over it.

11)  Prepare before an important presentation. This one is kind of obvious, but again, there is a reason that the performance was flawless, despite the intricate details. They came prepared.

12)  Document/track/archive your successes. Wouldn’t you love to bid on an original (circa 1980) piece of the wall on eBay? Well, you can’t. Without anything better to do with it at the time, the band burned it up. Yup, you read that correctly. I’ll bet a month’s mortgage payment that this version of the wall won’t befall the same fate.

Even if your career doesn’t take you around the world to perform nightly in deafening arenas, you can still apply these lessons to your own career. If you were at the show and have any of your own lessons to share, add them to the comments section.