#240 Mozart: A Life

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso, or four energy drinks, before or during the show, so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th. Mozart often discussed with his father the way some of his pieces appealed to the many, some to the really knowledgeable, and a few to both.
Some would make you sweat, as he put it, and others were childishly easy.
He did not judge, either by difficulty or popularity. Mozart was enormously broad-minded, tolerant, and omnivorous. The one thing he demanded, though he never said so directly, was good taste.
It is an extraordinary fact that Mozart, despite his enormous output and the speed at which so much of it was composed, is never guilty of a serious lapse of taste. He is the only great composer of whom this may be truthfully said.
Mozart continually delights. He often moves us. He makes us think. He excites. He intrigues. And mystifies. He brings sadness as often as comfort. He produces melancholy and introspection. He gives us endless moments of joy and laughter. But he never once disgusts.
The world got him cheap in his day. He knew it.
He had many misfortunes and many disappointments in a life of constant hard work, lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. But his warm spirit always bubbled. He loved his God, his family. His friends, and above all, his work, which he equated with God's service.
And that was all a reasonable man, or an unreasonable one for that matter, could wish for.
God bless him.
That is an excerpt that comes at the end of the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is Mozart, A Life, and is written by Paul Johnson. This is the third book by Paul Johnson that I've read for the podcast. If you haven't listened to it yet, I'd highly recommend going back to listening to episode number 225, which is on Winston Churchill. Paul writes these really short, no-fluff, crisp biographies. He's done a bunch. I think he's written, I don't know, like 10 or 20 of them. I'm going to go back and read a ton of them, like the ones on Socrates, Napoleon, Eisenhower, really, any on his list that look interesting. I want to go back to this line, though, because I think that's a great description, having reached the end of the book, of like a great synopsis of Mozart. And he said, A life of constant hard work lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration.
A life of constant hard work lived at the highest possible level of creative concentration. That is a great summary of what I learned about Mozart from reading this book.
And so let's go to the beginning of the book. Before I picked up the book, I obviously knew the name, didn't know a lot about Mozart the person. And I'm going to give you a brief overview here, because like I said, Paul writes really to the point. It says, Mozart died on December 5th, 1791, a few weeks short of his 36th birthday. So a very short but intense life. Mozart was the last of seven children. Only two of the seven survived infancy. Mozart was healthy and active. Some would say hyperactive. He traveled endlessly, was a fanatic and vigorous dancer, and worked relentlessly, often late into the night. And then these next few sentences are just absolutely incredible. It's one of the things I most admire about him now, that having read this biography of him. His output was enormous, much greater than nine-tenths of other composers. He was a mature artist in most forms at the age of 12 We will see. I'll go into more detail, but he was a child prodigy. And this is just crazy. There was never a month, often scarcely a week, when he did not produce a substantial score. And then I want to continue this overview. I'll go into more detail, but this overview I think is helpful at the very beginning. He was very rarely, he very rarely made any kind of mistake. And when he did, he noticed it. Though Mozart composed his works with exceptional rapidity, they were careful, deliberate, and polished. The truth is, and this is another crazy thing about his life, the truth is he started earlier than anyone else, and he was still composing on his deathbed. Those 30 years were crammed with creation. That he started so early was largely due to his father.