Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon is often described as the greatest concept album ever produced.
I remember hearing it for the first time — a sonic journey that felt alien and familiar all at once. Sixteen tracks woven into a single tapestry. Not just listened to, but experienced.
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1973 and engineered by a young Alan Parsons, the album was like nothing that had come before it: original, strange, beautiful, haunting.
Half a century later, it still feels fresh. I still listen to it the same way — from the first note to the last, without interruption. The album demands to be absorbed as a whole.
I think about this album often in my work with CEOs.
Because great CEOs, whether they know it or not, have the ability to make masterpieces.
No CEO is the same. No business is the same. And when the two come together with clarity and conviction, the alliance has the potential to produce something original, remarkable — even breathtaking.
The problem is that few CEOs give themselves permission to see business in this light.
Their patterning is too narrow. Their reference points are too constrained. They’ve inherited a version of business defined by efficiency, scale and quarterly expectations — not imagination, craft, or meaning.
Most CEOs don’t see themselves as artists. Most companies don’t see themselves as art forms.
But they are. And when this permission opens, the game changes. Suddenly, craft becomes central — the same obsessive craft Pink Floyd brought to The Dark Side of the Moon. They sweated mic choices, amplifier valves, instruments, and studio acoustics. They created with care so meticulous that something new emerged — something only they could make.
When a CEO begins to see their role with this same devotion, I call it the turn.
The turn is the most powerful moment in a CEO’s career. It’s the moment when the mundane becomes meaningful. When running a company becomes the creative privilege of a lifetime.
Can a business move us the way great art does? Yes. Many transcendent companies already have.
But the turn must be made — intentionally, bravely, and with the desire to express the full creative potential that lies beneath every great enterprise.
The Dark Side of the Moon remains vital because Pink Floyd made the turn. They trusted their instincts. They abandoned old patterns. They committed to something bold enough to matter.
And so can every CEO.
For the jaded. For the exhausted. For those whose work has lost its meaning.
It need not be this way.
Make the turn.
Gift yourself a deeper existence. Come alive to your work.