Erroll Garner

The Unstoppable Erroll Garner (1921–1977), American jazz pianist and composer. Garner truly let nothing stop him. Entrepreneurs and startups have much to learn from his pioneering approach!

Garner became a bestselling jazz musician without being able to read music. His first recordings were released in the 1940s as the five-volume Overture to Dawn. In 1954, he composed “Misty,” a ballad that would become a jazz standard—that is, an influential part of jazz musicians’ repertoire that is widely known and performed.

Jazz is unconventional and innovative by nature, much like many successful startups. A bestselling musician who couldn't read music? Even more unconventional. But that didn't stop Garner from success in the music world—or from receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.