There Are No Shortcuts

In this industry, as well as many others, people are always trying to find ways to improve the path to success. One thing I've found to be universally true is that there are no shortcuts. The best way to understand where you want to go is to have some knowledge of people that have achieved the same success you are pursuing. There are many lessons to be learned from these people. There is no one way to do or achieve anything but nothing is ever just given to you. If you want to be a great musician, artist, attorney, manager, producer, engineer. . .etc, there are some universal fundamentals that you have to adhere too. It is important to know what you want but you must start at the bottom and learn all of the basics of that career. If you aspire to be a CEO or label head, you will be in charge of a lot of different people doing vastly different things. How can you truly know who to hire and what their qualifications should be if you have not taken the time to truly learn the job yourself. I'm not saying that you have to be an expert at everything but you should spend SOME time learning any and everything that has to do with YOUR goals or career. This will only help you maintain control and insure that you are truly competent. The music industry has so many different divisions and there is no way for any one person to do all of the jobs but we should all have some basic knowledge of what it takes to make, market and distribute a record, what does the producer do, what does the songwriter do, what does the engineer do, how do you choose the right musicians, what does a manager do, what does a promoter do, what does a booking agent do, what does a graphic artist do, why is the right photographer so important, how do you choose a web designer, how does social networking apply to the success of your record and the list can go on and on. You have to take time and get some basic understanding of how all of these areas work. Even though you won't have to do each job it is important for you to know how they are supposed to be done and what to expect from a person in each position. This is the only way to know if your people are giving you the best work. Also developing good reading and communication skills are vital to any level of success. It takes hours of study and patience to truly be at the top of this and any other career. This is not a game. Anything worth having is worth working for and there are no short cuts. Knowledge is POWER and it can never be taken from you.

The Truth

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