How Not to Get On Broadway

how-not-to-get-on-broadway

I was reading a post by blogger Chris Brogan yesterday entitled “Earning Attention” which in short was about earning a place of importance within your industry as opposed to having expectations of someone else take you there. I’m not going to do it justice by attempting to recreate his post in a sentence or two so how about we just make it mandatory to head over there and check it out…just finish reading this one first!

His post reminded me of my days as a professional musician. For those that may not know me that well, before I started a career in Internet Marketing about 12 years ago, I played bass for the Broadway Show “Rent” amongst a bunch of other pretty cool gigs. As a successful musician I was hounded on a fairly regular basis by other bass players interested in subbing for me. With a few exceptions, they mostly left a bad taste in my mouth. Their attempts to get to know me had less to do with me and more to do with me giving them their big break. They would go something like this (actually, I should say exactly like this…this was an actual e-mail I received): [Read more...]

Newsflash: It’s All Your Fault!

its-all-your-fault

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you can do anything you want to do, be anything you want to be and have anything you want to have. The bad news is that if you aren’t already doing it, being it or having it, it is 100% your fault. That’s right. I don’t mean to squash all of the excuses that help you sleep at night, but here are the facts. It’s not because you are too young, too old, too tall or too short. It’s not because of who you know or who you don’t know. It’s not because of where you live. It’s not your parents fault (even if they are nuts). It’s not even because you aren’t good enough. It is because of one of two reasons:

  1. You don’t really want it as much as you say you do
  2. You are too lazy to go and get it (see reason #1)

That’s right. It’s time to strap on your big boy (or girl) pants and start taking full responsibility for who you are and where you are in your life. If you do not have the success that you want and are not moving closer and closer to it every day, then you are not fully committed to the outcome. When I say commitment, I’m talking about willing to move heaven and earth to get it. Where hearing “no” just makes you want it more. Where you’ve pictured yourself doing it so many times that you start to believe that you’ve actually done it. That’s committment.
[Read more...]

Automatic Yes

automatic-yes

I have a question for you.  What are you willing to do to become successful?  Anything, right?  We all say that we’ll do just about anything within the confines of the law (and sometimes a teensy weensy bit outside) to succeed and yet some of us are successful and some of us are not.  How is that possible?

It’s simple, really.  Some of us are lying.  There are those that would truly move heaven and earth for a taste of success.  Then there are others that would do anything…except sales because it isn’t glamorous enough…and teaching because they don’t like babysitting…and traveling because it’s lonely being away from everyone you are close with…etc. [Read more...]