The Realization

"Certainly no one starts out believing they'll fail in The Music Business..."

That's the first line of a book I started writing about ten years ago, entitled "How to Justify Your Failure in the Music Business." Everything seemed so clear then, so predetermined... that I would try for my entire life to do something, and fail miserably at it. And yet, it now seems so predetermined that that was actually the precursor to my success! Odder still is that I've reached the exact same point again.

When writing that opening, I had given up on my friends and contacts in the business. They had moved on, mostly to insurance sales and construction jobs, and I was left with just my wits, and a trunk full of songs that no one wanted to record, and talent no one wanted to pay for. Had that been enough of a recipe for success, or even self-aggrandization, I would have been thrilled. But when you see successful people on TV and in the media, the one factor that has the most to do with their success is the one they won't tell you. It's because they haven't realized it themselves, and that's why they're so confident in their zeal to tell you how to become successful. They hawk their products on shows CNN gave them, on infomercials and seminars, look proud and in control as the paparazzi snap the next all-important pic of them, all with the hubris to tell you they know what it takes. And you don't. They're wrong. You do. The problem is not that you don't have what it takes, the problem is that you, just like me, have not been able to take advantage of one single factor.

But what is that one factor leading to their success?

It's luck. That's all. You've heard that all it takes is a great idea and a nonstop work ethic, but that's not true. Sure, that's required, but it's not the key. Working long, working smart, thinking positively, writing down seven steps, getting a business plan, hiring people you trust, doing it all yourself, having everyone else do it all.... all of that is necessary to get you to your goal. But NONE of it is what will actually get you there.

Do not despair.

Let's see what we can do together.