Our cook Kamala Shahu complains to us at least ten times a month that she can never sleep before 2 am. This is when she leaves our house at 8 pm every night and lives within a five-minute walking distance. The reason for this is his third unmarried son Satish, who also works as a disc jockey (DJ) after work and returns from the hotel at 1.30 in the night. Kamala is able to sleep only after serving him food. Last month, when Satish got married, I casually told him that since you are married, you can now leave the work of DJ. But Satish gave me a different perspective. He told that he works in the backend of a big firm, where loneliness is very troubling. So DJ helps him to remain creative throughout the day. He said that ‘DJ music is entirely based on presenting familiar sounds in a new context. ‘Listening to an unexpected mash-up or clever transition teaches your brain how to connect two completely different concepts, even in everyday tasks.’ He said that many of the world’s richest entrepreneurs do DJ work for a few hours at a time because it acts as a powerful catalyst to enhance your imagination in many important ways. After returning home, I searched for leading entrepreneurs who use DJ music to enhance cognitive creativity. Apparently, engaging with DJ sets exercises specific neural pathways that are related to innovative problem solving, cognitive flexibility, and emotional expression. The first person whose name I found interesting online was Hassan Hadi, founder and managing director of Southgate Solicitors, a London-based family law firm. He started DJing last year and found that it not only boosted his creativity but also helped him focus on work. Satish also claims the same. Founders who have dabbled in DJing include David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs, Steven Bartlett, panelist on BBC’s ‘Dragons’ Den’ show, and Victor Ripperbelli, co-founder and chief executive of Synthesis, a $4 billion AI video creation company. Shopify President Harley Finkelstein started a DJ company as a teenager and still frequently DJs at his company’s corporate events. On a day-to-day basis, Hadi handles the management, leadership and supervision of his law firm. Although he no longer handles casework, he helps young legal professionals win contracts. He says, ‘Managing a law firm during the day and then doing DJing, both require similar skills.’ They are right also. Both lawyers and DJs have to understand the situation and react accordingly. Immediate circumstances have to be dealt with. Be it a hearing in court or a business meeting with a client, one has to adapt to the occasion. Interestingly, some people start DJing even at the age of 60. Like, Tina Woods, also known as DJ Tina. He has established ‘Collider Health’, a health innovation consultancy under public-private partnership in Britain. Today, at the age of 62, Tina says, ‘Being an entrepreneur is very lonely and DJing keeps me socially connected.’ There is a long list of founders who are DJing today or who started DJing before starting their company. But if you are one of those people who go home and sleep after a long day’s business or high-pressure job and start the same thing again the next day, then if you find DJing uncomfortable then you can take the help of music to get stress-free. The bottom line is that you must find a way to overcome loneliness in life or at the workplace. Listening to music with someone is also a therapy that can be tried.
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N. Raghuraman’s Column: Is ‘DJ’ a way to overcome loneliness in some careers?
