Book Excerpts from The Music Game

Calling the Shots

I’ve always wanted to be involved in management. For as long as I can remember I’ve, enjoyed setting up events and getting everyone together. When I was eleven, I lived with my grandparents and cousins Lee and Betty. I looked up to Lee; he had all the girls, played basketball, football, and was the lead singer of a group he put together with three of his friends. The group was very popular in Covert, Michigan and appeared in various talent shows. Guess who their manager was? Me. 

I was managing a group of young men twice my age and size at the age of eleven.  I took care of everything for them; they respected me to the fullest. I made sure they practiced everyday and anyone dealing with them had to talk to me. We did a talent show with various groups and won first place. That was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  That venture soon came to an end when my mother took me back to St. Louis; hence, as far as I can remember, I have had management abilities and the ambition to get things done.

But being ambitious and being a good manager are two different things. I’ve always been a creative person. People have told me all my life that I’m the most creative person they’ve ever met. That’s my strong point. Getting out, meeting producers and artists and looking for ways to put a hit together are the things I love doing.

Now when it comes to management I can do it but because it’s not my passion I had to be smart enough to know I needed someone on my team to pick up the slack. Many people let their pride get in the way of their growth. I found myself guilty of this early on in my career and because of it, I had to work harder and I made a lot of mistakes along the way.

Being a good businessperson means being strong enough to accept the fact that you can’t do everything yourself and you have to delegate tasks to others and trust them to make your operation look good. That’s the difference between a good businessman and a man who is just in business.