Why I FAILED

Ask Questions - Often

I want to make sure that I’m not misunderstood in my writing here at whyifailed.com. I want to make sure that you know that there are no set formulas for success, no fast track plans promising wealth and fame and no guarantees that what you sincerely desire to do with your life is going to work out the way you plan.
Sorry, but those things do not exist.

What I can promise you, though, is that your music career must be based on solid music AND business principles and skills and that all of them can be learned and improved upon over time. I can also promise you that one of the most important business skill is asking the right questions.

“Good decision making is about knowing what questions to ask and
questioning is inherently challenging (or negative, depending on your
point of view). But it should not be ducked, because the other way lies
the tyranny of the yes man culture. Reality checks are essential and
their great benefit is that the sooner they come, the less painful they
are.”

What kind of questions?

• Who else does what I do?
• Why are they, or aren’t they, successful?
• What can I learn from them?
• Who are my customers?
• What are their needs? Wants? Desires?
• Can I/do I meet those needs, wants and desires?
• Who else could be a customer?
• How?
• Are there changes in music and/or business that are affecting my career?
• Are there changes coming?
• When?
• Am I ready?
• What’s a “good” customer?
• What’s a “great” customer?
• What’s a “bad” one?
• How can I get more “greats”?
• Should I keep the “bads”?
• Who are my great customers and do they KNOW they’re great customers?
• What can I do to change that?

I hope you get the idea. I suggest you create a list of 100 such questions. Yes, 100. Sure some will be dumb, be a few will change your life.

Which reminds me of a few more.

• What are my top 2 or 3 priorities in life?
• Am I living towards those?
• Why or why not?

From Henry Ford

“Remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” - Henry Ford

Be encouraged.

“Cashboard” - A Cool Tool

This might not be useful for everyone, but if you generate your income in an independent and hourly method - an engineer or producer for example - you should check out Cashboard. It’s a web based tool for “estimates, invoices and time tracking.”

Hope it helps.

The Highlights of Duct Tape Marketing

Among the many blogs I visit on a daily basis, John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing (see my links) is one of my favorites. I’ve quoted him multiple times because I find his advice to small business owners to be perfect for musicians because, well, you’re a small business owner.

Guy Kawasaki (another terrific author and business expert) asked John for a summary of his methods that you should print off and keep with your business plans and ideas (you do have a business plan, right?). Here’s a quick overview with some “musician” tweeks of my own:

• Narrow the market focus

You can’t be everything to everyone. Know what you are and for who.

• Differentiate
• Think about strategy first

This is about focus. You now know what you are and for who, and you know it’s different enough to cut through the clutter. Your strategy is how you will communicate that at all times.

• Create information that educates
• Package the experience

These last two go together (read the post) to form a consistent experience that you provide for each and every person you interact with - whether in person, online, on stage, in recordings/videos, etc., etc.

• Generate leads from many points

Use EVERYTHING you can to get in front of as many folks as you appropriate.

• Nurture leads along the logical buying path

First, make sure you’re presence is felt at the beginning of each buying path and then nurture the leads. In other words, people who might be interested in what you do look for what they want in certain ways and in certain places (again, read the post), make sure they find you.

• Measure everything that matters

I suggest the lesson to learn here is to make sure you don’t keep doing things that aren’t working. This means you must determine why you’re doing things, what will make them a success and then keep track of whether they work or not. If they work, keep doing them. If not, stop and do something else.

• Automate for leverage

Perhaps this is a bit of a stretch for some music endeavors, but this is about finding ways to NOT work on your career 24/7. Use tools, people, whatever to keep a good balance.

• Commit

Building a career is about momentum and momentum comes from doing the right things over and over and over again.

Those are my thoughts, but be sure to read the whole post (did I say that enough?).

The Secret of Failure

Here’s the lead in for a post I highly recommend you read:

“Bill Cosby once said that he didn’t know the secret of success but he knew the secret of failure: Trying to please everybody.”

The post has nothing related to music, BUT it will encourage you to always remember that no matter how good, how great, how flashy, how conservative, how loud, how soft, how cute or how ugly you and/or your music is, there will ALWAYS be someone who hates it.

But remember that there’s likely someone who loves it too.

My point? Be you - passionately and believably.

Find the TRUTH About a Music Career

I’ll never forget the absolute disgust I felt while reading an interview with my idol, Jeff Porcaro. As a fellow drummer who had dreamed of recording as a career from the time I was 8 or 9, it seemed inconceivable that one of the greatest session drummers of all time was bemoaning the realities of his career. Yet here he was describing the fact that he was often hired to “sweeten” tracks on a regular basis. He told of being asked to merely add hi-hat or tom-tom overdubs to records and how completely boring and mechanical the whole process was.

At that point in time I should have realized that the vision I had of my career was flawed, but of course I didn’t. Instead, I thought that I would do things differently when and if the chances ever arrived.

Hey, don’t think I’m so stupid, you’re probably doing the same thing.

As the article “Digging Up a Career’s Downsides” suggests, “every career has downsides, and unearthing them early could save you from having to restart your career in a few years.”

I highly recommend you fully research the realities - good and BAD - of what you think you want to do for a living before dedicating the endless hours and resources it takes to succeed in music. Though the answers you find may disappoint you, it’s more likely they will focus you on exactly the right path.

Tax Advice

On the heels of my last post comes a link to a SmartMoney.com article on Tax-Free Retirement Accounts for the Self-Employed. Although it’s POSSIBLE you might read about stuff like this in Guitar Player or Modern Drummer, it’s unlikely.

Freelancing Mistakes

If you’ve read this blog for any time at all, you’ve realized that I link to a lot of other posts. I do this for two reasons: first, I want to show you valuable information that can be applied to your music endeavors. Second, I want to show you how and where to find valuable information that can be applied to your music endeavors.

Take this post for example. From a blog called “PowerHomeBiz Small & Home Business Blog” comes an article entitled “Common Mistakes to Avoid When Freelancing.”

In three quick bullet points and short elaborations, Isabel Isidro encapsulates much of what I say here on a regular basis. Freelancers (and if you’re a musician, you are a freelancer) often fail because they overly rely on one client, they neglect to prepare for inevitable financial ups and downs or they forget about the business side of being self employed.

Go read the post, it’s short and powerful.

I’ve written about each of these topics before and will write about them again and again. They are central to all that I teach and directing you to Isabel’s post simply reinforces the fact that they are important and that you’re not alone in  facing these challenges.

Which brings me to my second reason. If you are to succeed in your career and life, you will need far more information than I can bring you through this blog and my upcoming book. So I encourage you to look to the world of business for the depth of help you need. If I do nothing more than open your eyes to the wealth of resources and information available to you than I’ve succeeded in my job. 

MPAA Uses Dogs…

No one seems to know if this story is even true or not, but either way, here’s the right attitude:

“If the MPAA story is fact, it’s ridiculous at about 17 levels. If it’s
fiction, then it further reinforces the notion that news about
everything is suspect.”

In my biased opinion? It’s probably true, and at least it’s funny.

The Truly Difficult Questions

After 20 years in music and 5+ years in business, I know one thing for sure: you will not do the work necessary to succeed in your dream without
solid answers to the following questions. Pursuing dreams requires something
of you and you will only give of yourself for something clearly defined, realistic and truly
meaningful. Anything less is just a fantasy.

So, first question:

Why do you want to be a professional musician/singer/songwriter? Chances are your life is pretty good right now, so why do you want/need to blow that up for what you think you want. If you’re already playing music as a part of your life, what do you need to be different?

Second: what is it exactly that you want to do? “I want to be a star” doesn’t count, spell it out in detail. “I want to have a career exactly like _______ - and that means the following: blah, blah, blah.” List details of what your professional life will be at that point. Also paint a picture of what your life will be like when you have it - family, time, travel, obligations, etc. And be sure you answer about the emotional parts for too. How will you FEEL then? Is there something you’re after emotionally?

Third, and most importantly, are your answers to these questions realistic? I realized late in my career that I had a fantasy version of being a recording session drummer. I THOUGHT I knew what recording work was like, but the reality was different. This means you have to do some research. Get around folks that are doing what you want to do and read articles and stories about their work. And if you read something you don’t like, take it seriously. It will NOT be different for you no matter what you think.

Fourth: once you’ve put your answers through the research of step three ask yourself this: does all of this add up to a life I want to live?

I know these are tough questions, but here’s where I’m going with this. There’s a tendency to define success in the music business one way: mega stardom. But that’s not fair or true. Playing music is much more than selling 2.23 million CDs and it’s unrealistic to consider anything less than that a failure.

To me, success in the music business is having a great LIFE that includes your passion for music. One of my main objectives as a writer is to help you understand that everyone has two dreams - what they want to do, and the life they want to have. True success is when they work harmoniously.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I want to be a multi-millionaire so I understand the difference between going off to work each day and touring the world in a Lear Jet. But I also know what it takes to get on that Lear Jet and what it does to a life. Make sure you do too.

You will not reach your dreams if they are fuzzy.
You will not reach your dreams if they are unrealistic.
And you will not give what is required of yourself if they are not meaningful.