Meaningless Lyrics and Leadership
*To hear the music referenced in this article, watch the video here.
“I am an American aquarium drinker, I assassinate down the avenue.”
The band is Wilco. The song is I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and when Jeff Tweedy sings that line in concert, the crowd goes nuts.
It’s poetic, strange…and makes zero sense. An American aquarium drinker? What does that even mean?
And yet, it doesn’t matter. Fans sing it anyway. And in the process, they assign their own meaning.
That’s the fascinating thing about music: the lyrics themselves don’t have to make sense. Take the Beatles – “I am the Walrus. Goo goo g’joob.” It literally means nothing!
But we make it mean something. We bring our stories, our emotions, our circumstances—and suddenly, nonsense feels profound.
And that’s how life works, too. The “lyrics” we’re given—setbacks, changes, uncertainty—don’t always come with a clear meaning. Sometimes…
They just plain suck.
But we’re not powerless.
We get to decide what those moments mean. We get to decide the story they tell. We get to sing them our way.
And in business?
Same thing. Let’s be honest—half the “lyrics” of business don’t make sense either.
Acronyms, jargon, 47-slide strategy decks…sometimes it’s all gibberish.
But people don’t rally around perfect logic. They rally around meaning.
Your job as a leader isn’t to deliver the most polished script. It’s to create a rhythm people want to move to. A song they feel connected to, even if every line isn’t crystal clear.
So whether you’re leading a meeting, rolling out a vision, or just getting your team through another busy week, don’t worry about making every word perfect.
Worry about creating meaning.
Because in the end, it’s not about whether the words make sense. It’s about the meaning you create.