My Grandfather was an entrepreneur, musician, concert pianist, humorist and lover of entertaining people. He was a music prodigy, he was self -taught through ear and observation and his love for playing was infectious. He had passion, he had dreams and he went against the grain to make his dreams come true. He was well educated and he could have gone into his second love, finance, however he decided to take the risk and focus on his music. This is the part that I love, he differentiated himself from other musicians and invented his own gig: “concert humorist pianist”. He loved to entertain people, he loved to play the piano, and he loved to make people laugh and laugh they did. He used his entrepreneurial spirit to put this plan into action and it paid off well. He had a vibrant career that brought him all over the world performing for royal families, heads of state, and in prestigious concert halls – Carnegie Hall being his favorite. He went down in the history books for being the inventor of the concept “Concert Humorist “. He was his own manager, he wrote his own act and he was the sole talent on stage. He was a hit and he loved every minute of what he was doing. When he retired towards the middle of his life he decided to pursue Finance and re-invented himself as a Senior Investment Advisor until he retired for a second time at the age of 88.
I was inspired to write this story because after dedicating a large portion of my life to helping artists make a career for themselves doing what they love, I realized that my Grandfather‘s pioneering spirit shaped the way I view the world. I am a believer in living my life to the fullest and going within for answers, following my intuition, following my passion and following whatever crazy journey I am on, because I know that I will be happiest expressing my creativity with the world. I was reminded of him a few weeks ago when I was invited to attend a humanitarian concert event at Carnegie Hall. When I walked into Carnegie Hall all I could think about was how my Grandfather must have felt when he first played there. He was a mid century concert pianist who had pushed the boundaries by combining different mediums, in doing so he had created a performance powerful enough to captivate the large audience at Carnegie Hall, just him as the sole performer. So powerful! It was a really cool experience that I will never forget and I will continue to encourage artists to follow their dreams, dreams do come true.
Artists know how to create, how to express themselves, however they don’t always know how to create themselves in business, how to build a business around their creative passions. My grandfather knew how to do both and this is what I love to teach. Through collaboration, coaching, consulting artists can learn how to develop their creative expression into a fully functioning business that add value to the world.
On June 21st, 1964 my Grandfather received one of his greatest honors from Bard College: “Honorary degrees of Doctor of Humane Letters were also given to Henry L. Scott, a former Bard trustee and a concert pianist”. Bard just so happens to be my middle name… 
