Now, what happened was not maybe what you thought, which is, he suddenly became passionate, engaged, involved, got a new teacher, he hit puberty, or whatever it is. What actually happened was the impulses were reduced. You see, the first time he was playing with an impulse on every note. (Piano) And the second with an impulse every other note. (Piano) You can see it by looking at my head. (Laughter) The nine-year-old, the nine-year-old put an impulse on every four notes. (Piano) And the ten-year-old on every eight notes. (Piano) And the 11-year-old, one impulse on the whole phrase. (Piano)
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Amazing number of people think they're tone deaf. Actually, I hear a lot, "My husband is tone deaf." (Laughter) Actually, you cannot be tone deaf. Nobody is tone deaf. If you were tone deaf, you couldn't change the gears on your car, in a stick-shift car. You couldn't tell the difference between somebody from Texas and somebody from Rome. And the telephone. The telephone. If your mother calls on the miserable telephone, she calls and says "Hello," you not only know who it is, you know what mood she's in. You have a fantastic ear. Everybody has a fantastic ear. So nobody is tone deaf.
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Now, you notice that there is not the slightest doubt in my mind that this is going to work if you look at my face, right? It's one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt for one moment the capacity of the people he's leading to realize whatever he's dreaming. Imagine if Martin Luther King had said, "I have a dream. Of course, I'm not sure they'll be up to it."
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But has it ever occurred to you that the reason you feel sleepy in classical music is not because of you, but because of us? Did anybody think while I was playing, "Why is he using so many impulses?" If I'd done this with my head you certainly would have thought it. (Music) And for the rest of your life, every time you hear classical music you'll always be able to know if you hear those impulses.
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You know, we were just in South Africa, and you can't go to South Africa without thinking of Mandela in jail for 27 years. What was he thinking about? Lunch? No, he was thinking about the vision for South Africa and for human beings. That's what kept -- this is about vision; this is about the long line. Like the bird who flies over the field and doesn't care about the fences underneath.
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So I made up my mind at that moment that classical music is for everybody. Everybody.
Now, how would you walk -- because you know, my profession, the music profession doesn't see it that way. They say 3 percent of the population likes classical music. If only we could move it to 4 percent our problems would be over. I say, "How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be if you thought 3 percent of the population likes classical music? If only we could move it to 4 percent. How would you walk? How would you talk? How would you be if you thought everybody loves classical music -- they just haven't found out about it yet." See, these are totally different worlds.
Now, I had an amazing experience. I was 45 years old, I'd been conducting for 20 years, and I suddenly had a realization. The conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound. My picture appears on the front of the CD -- (Laughter) -- but the conductor doesn't make a sound. He depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful. And that changed everything for me. It was totally life-changing. People in my orchestra came up to me and said, "Ben, what happened?" That's what happened. I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course, I wanted to know whether I was doing that. And you know how you find out? You look at their eyes. If their eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. You could light up a village with this guy's eyes. (Laughter) Right. So if the eyes are shining, you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: Who am I being that my players' eyes are not shining? We can do that with our children too. Who am I being that my children's eyes are not shining? That's a totally different world.
Now, we're all about to end this magical, on-the-mountain week, and we're going back into the world. And I say, it's appropriate for us to ask the question: Who are we being as we go back out into the world? And you know, I have a definition of success. For me it's very simple. It's not about wealth and fame and power. It's about how many shining eyes I have around me.
