It's said that great musicians must start out by emulating styles of the greats of the past before coming into their own sound.
Note: this doesn't at all take away from the
quality of their early emulation, but it is true that their later stuff tends to be more
innovative.
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U2's 1st 3 albums sounded like "post-punk, college anthem rock." They were a great band within a well-defined genre.
In 1984 they changed directions and released The Unforgettable Fire. From then on U2 sounded like, well, uh... U2. They no longer fit into a genre because they were stepping into uncharted territory. The sound became synonymous with the band, because nobody else could have possibly created The Unforgettable Fire (or for that matter, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa or Pop
).
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Or for a personal development example, Tony Robbins started out by using existing tools (including lots of NLP). Then he came out with Personal Power II / Six Human Needs and all of a sudden he owned his own style. UPW & Mastery University (Date With Destiny especially) all have Tony's own stamp on them.
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Now, it's true that Steve has stood out from day one with "Personal Development for
Smart People" (i.e., not for 99% "drones" in the population) and levels of consciousness. It's fair to say, though, that he's written a ton of great articles on areas that are already widely discussed (yes even the "new-agey stuff"
) , including:
-beliefs, values (Tony Robbins & NLP)
-law of attraction (Jack Canfield & Joe Vitale)
-personal effectiveness (Brian Tracy)
-principles & courage (Stephen Covey)
With polarization, polarity, lightworkers & darkworkers, Steve seems to be stepping into uncharted "Pavlina territory" if you will.
In other words, Steve Pavlina is really starting to sound like Steve Pavlina.
Way to go, Steve!
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PS: 3 years after The Unforgettable Fire, U2 released the landmark album, The Joshua Tree. If my career trajectory analogy is any indication, Steve will be touring the world to perform in sold-out arenas and stadiums by 2010.
