Knowing What You Want

Most of us spend years chasing our goals and dreams without REALLY having a clear cut definition of what we want. We kinda just go through the motions and some of us even get lucky. The main key to achieving anything is to know what you want. Especially in this business. It's important to know what you want so that you can also know what you don't want. I recall an experience years ago. We had just incorporated our first production company and we were pursuing an investor. He sat in front of us and said, "OK what if I told you I was going to give you whatever you wanted? Just tell me how much you need and give me an itemized plan showing how you plan on using it." Now he didn't say go figure it out. He wanted us to tell him right then. We had a broad idea of what we wanted but had not really defined it. Luckily he was not actually righting a check that day, he was just giving us a valuable lesson in this game. From that day forward we made sure to always right down our goals and plans. I still do it today so if someone asks me what my plans are or what I want, I can communicate it clearly. It's also important for young artists to know what they want. I had a conversation with an artist recently and when I asked him what he wanted, he simply said that he wanted to be famous and perform on stages all over the world. This sounds like the dream of thousands of young acts but a self destructive one. Let me explain . . . When you sit down with a record company, attorney or manager and you can't define specific things you want from your career they will make the decisions for you. Yes you can be famous and perform on as many stages as you want, but what about your publishing, copyrights, performance compensation, the plan for growing and sustaining your career . . .etc. You have to know and guide these people, if not they will make decisions that best serve them and not you. You will only become a commodity to be used and exploited. No matter how young or old, we all need to know what we want and be able to communicate it clearly. Anyone who doesn't support our vision must be cut. It's important that managers and the like know that they work for us but we must give them a clear vision and guide them by being decisive and knowing what we want. Enjoy the journey.

The Truth

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