A few weeks ago, while in Europe, I had a free day and decided to spend it in Liverpool, England visiting a museum dedicated to The Beatles.

Now for those of you 40 years of age and younger, I might have to explain that Liverpool is the home of the venerable rock group “The Beatles.”  The Beatles were “war babies,” John Lennon was born in 1940 and George Harrison (the youngest Beatle) was born in 1943.  

These kids were from the hardscrabble parts of a very hardscrabble town. Liverpool is a blue collar city that fancies its soccer (make that football) team far more than any of cultural icon, of which there are quite a few.  Liverpulians are descended from dockworkers who tend to the nature harbor that includes the Mersey River.  Like I said, blue collar all the way.  

The Beatles were in their teens when they began to gain notice around Liverpool and found their way to a club called the “Cavern.” The Cavern was pretty much what it sounds like ... a basic World War II bomb shelter turned into a nightclub.  I’m claustrophobic, so it was very difficult for me to stay in the Cavern once my mind began to remind me of exactly where I was.  Picture walking down the narrowest alley you have ever been in, turning left into a flight of very close stairs, and then descending even further into a sweltering pit that was so closely crowded with people that the walls themselves perspired!

For 294 consecutive nights, The Beatles turned up to play at the Cavern.  Along with them were the hard core fans; these were the people that would arrive early and sit and wait in the alleyway until the club would open.  In time, club management (sensing a good thing) even added a lunchtime show.  

Two-hundred ninety-four nights.  Think of it.  No matter how much you love what you do, this has got to become aggravating at some point.  

But on the flipside of that coin, think of how “tight” their act became.  I played in a band for a number of years (still do, but to a very small degree), and I can tell you that when you play this often, every song you do becomes absolutely perfect.  You begin to anticipate your bandmate’s smallest gesticulations and idiosyncrasies.  You cover when a teammate makes a mistake, and you know that when you take a breath, your teammate will hold up your end as well.  

I bring this up because this is what honed The Beatles.  This is why they remained every bit as tight when they made their famous tour of the Reeperbahn in Hamburg, Germany.  In fact, by the time they left for Germany, they were confident that they could take over and captivate any audience at any venue on Earth.  And why not?  They truly were that good.  

The museum goes on and on.  As you traverse the overall space, you find that each area of the museum represents an era in The Beatles’ overall lifespan.  There are the early American tour years, the “Sgt. Pepper” years, and you can’t forget the psychedelic years.  

But capping it all are the end of the decade years from 1968 to 1970.  For it was during this era that the band members grew tired of each other and decided that The Beatles had stayed way past their welcome.  And so, in 1970, they mutually agreed to disband.

But being barely 30 years old, they certainly were not finished creating.  And as such, they struck out on their own once more.  You all know the story of McCartney and Wings and Harrison and his solo career, and, of course, who can forget John Lennon and Yoko Ono as they created their own brand of “different music.”  

One of the key things that they did during this time was to form Apple Corp.  In theory, Apple Corp was an entity funded by The Beatles to allow young and talented artists like themselves a means by which they could create their own music without having to go through the struggles that The Beatles, themselves, had to endure.  This means that they had management.  They had financial resources.  They had administrative and bookkeeping services at their fingertips.  

What’s more, The Beatles expanded greatly beyond just music.  Apple Corp published books and had a movies division and a children’s entertainment division.  And on and on.  John Lennon was once paraphrased as saying that upon looking back on his own career, he couldn’t even begin to surmise a way that a young and upcoming group of talented people could possible achieve fame and fortune in the same way that The Beatles had done it.  “It just seemed beyond comprehension,” said Lennon, “To this day, we don’t know how we even did it.”  

Lennon and the boys did it because they were hardened.  They were toughened from every angle.  They had street smarts and they had book smarts.  None of this simply “arrived,” but rather their success was a direct result of their having to learn how to survive each and every day.

When the going got tough, it was quite clear that these newer bands would fail.  And, in fact, they did fail at an incredibly high rate.

Apple Corp became a place that hosted one unending non-stop party.  Alcohol and drugs were in endless supply.  There were offices and cubicles and the like, but nothing got accomplished.  Plans were occasionally drawn up, but often than not, everything was freelance.  Finally, half a dozen years after it was started, The Beatles hired an American by the name of Alan Kline to go in and “clean the mess up.”  

And clean up he did.  Firing basically every other person in the building, Kline introduced discipline, a process, and planning to persons who had never even considered those terms before.  In time, this new management style coaxed some hits out of Apple Corp.  But it truly was too little too late, and Apple, as a thriving entity, ultimately ceased.  

So what do we learn from all of this?  To me, it’s simple.  Apple Corp needed people just like The Beatles.  But so long as these people were guaranteed their paychecks and a cushy office to retreat to (where there just so happened to be a non-stop party revolving around them), there was no need to assume a mood of desperation.  These people who were signed by Apple and found their way to mecca, had no plan other than to physically get into the bosom of Apple Corp.  Once there, they figured, “lunches were free and paychecks could be had.”  The bar was set very low at Apple Corp and as a result, what Apple Corp got was exactly what they deserved. And as those of you who read this blog know, without discipline and process, there can be no success.