People who have talked to me last couple of months know that I truly believe, and want to invest, in people.
People that truly want to give it their all, want to succeed no matter what the costs are. With Block Party we look for (and already found) these kinds of special entrepreneurs. There are a lot of examples in the music industry of people who really gave it everything they got.
Last time I talked about Jay-Z. This time I want to honour two other true hustlers: Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.
Both separate stories, reached the top and then combined their powers to take over the world in music and far beyond.
Jimmy Iovine became one of the greatest entertainment leaders of our time and do you know how he started? He got offered a job at a famous studio, to sweep the floors. He took it and gave it all he got.
Yes. Sweeping floors.
Jimmy knew that being around these people would teach him and gave him the opportunity to build relationship with some very interesting and talented people.
He watched the producers work, sometimes asked smart questions. Until one day the assistant producer could not make it to the studio, but Jimmy was there.
Then later on the head of the studio tested Jimmy. He called him on Christmas day that he needed to come to the studio because somebody big was coming in and there was no producer available.
Jimmy excused himself at the dinner table to his family and got his ass to the studio asap. When he arrived, the urge wasn’t that big but he proved that he was there when he needed to be.
From that moment on Jimmy’s only way was up.
What if Jimmy felt too good to sweep floors? Or said sorry to the studio head, because he could not leave the family Christmas dinner table?
The beautiful thing is. With that mentality that he had back than, which he never lost, he also built something totally different than records or artists. He built Beats by Dre.
He wasn’t an electronic expert, he wasn’t a branding expert, he only saw an opportunity. And if Jimmy puts his mind to something he can get anything done.
You may ask yourself now if I feel that I am as great as Jimmy? I am not. I have so much more to learn.
But what I do know is that I will truly give it anything I got to do awesome and meaningful things in this life.
For me this started during my internship at Avatar Records, in Los Angeles. I had to pleasure to work for Larry Robinson who I now consider as my mentor, my friend and my American dad. But that is a story for next time.
To end it all I hereby quote Jimmy Iovine: “I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy, just to do as well as the next guy. And to do better than the next guy, I had to just kill. And you know, to a certain extent, that’s still with me in how I work, you know, I just… go in”.
