Andrew Mason must be some kind of spirit animal of optimism. We assumed he was kidding when today he wrote that he had recorded “a seven song album of motivational business music”. Just three months ago the founder and CEO got booted from Groupon. But we’ve just confirmed with him that his album “Hardly Workin’” is for real. Hold on to your ear holes, startup people.
Mason gave the world an update on what he’s been up to since he cashed in his voucher for an escort to the guillotine from Groupon. He’s been galavanting around the world, losing weight, will become a part-time partner at Y Combinator, and plans to start a company with the best of his bottled-up ideas from the last seven years.
But none of that is nearly important as his initiative to inspire the youth of America. He writes (with two spaces after each period [dude, no!]), that:
“I managed over 12,000 people at Groupon, most under the age of 25. One thing that surprised me was that many would arrive at orientation with minimal understanding of basic business wisdom. ”Haven’t you read any business books? Good to Great? Winning? The One Minute Manager?” I’d ask. ”Business books? Not really our thing,” was the typical response. I came to realize that there was a real need to present business wisdom in a format that is more accessible to the younger generation.”
So release an ebook series? Go on a campus speaking tour? Nope. He hit the music studio to create what we could only imagine sounds like Bob Dylan meets Tony Robbins meets Metallica. We’ve spoken directly to Mason and he says the album is real.
”I spent a week in LA earlier this month recording Hardly Workin’, a seven song album of motivational business music targeted at people newly entering the workforce. These songs will help young people understand some of the ideas that I’ve found to be a key part of becoming a productive and effective employee. I’m really happy with the results and look forward to sharing them as soon as I figure out how to load music onto iTunes, hopefully in the next few weeks.”
I’ll be camped outside of iTunes waiting for the release if we can’t get a review copy first. In the meantime I’ve made him some mock-up album covers. Whenever we do get our hands on Hardly Workin’, expect a listening party at the TechCrunch San Francisco office. I’ll even livestream it if Mason will let me.
I’ve said before that inventors are the new rockstars. This is absolutely what I meant.
[Image Credit: Martin Schoeller]
