Here's how I was drafted into the world of entrepreneurs:
I had come into some money, and soon thereafter, at a week long seminar at the Omega Institute with David Deida, I decided I ought to set people free, whatever that would mean.
I was an actor and kung fu student, but not self-supporting. I'd run into a friend at a cocktail party who introduced me to her boyfriend. We talked about art, and a few months and a couple hundred cups of coffee later, I thought, well -- here's the person, the artist I'm assigned to set free.
So I asked him if he'd had money and time what would he do? We discussed making a demo, but the industry was dying all around us. We discussed an EP but that seemed to me not a commercially viable option.
We decided on a full length album in order to make the maximal artistic statement. Then rather than make a low-cost album in hopes of it taking off, I approached someone who regularly made multi-platinum and multi-gold records, Daniel Wise. He gave me a price -- entry-level by major record label standards (where 1st albums can cost half a million) but inexpensive by, say, luxury sports car standards.
It's now a while since we started the album. The album turned out better than I'd imagined. 11 tracks, and 9 -- count 'em, 9 -- are singles. (Some feel lucky with two.) So the album is disruptive because it's major-label quality but we did it ourselves and retain all the money. It's destructive because, while home-brew is good, home brew with experience and the Kink's original analog equipment is better and I hope it helps raise the bar for every basement band in terms of complexity and sound. To paraphrase a quote I heard somewhere, it's better to obviate than to create bad art.
It's taken 3 years to get the album out. That's OK because it's taken time to get all the pieces in place. The game isn't over until it's over but it's also not on my clock. Someone else is timing this for me benevolently, and I'm rolling with the reality.
Maybe it is my deepest purpose to set artists and those in my life free , to open their hearts to God, through my actions and attitudes: the aggregate of that effort, the pearl, as between the sand (me) and the oyster (the artist or my beloveds) is this album which I can sell. Maybe this album will support me in discovering other talent.
I started with an angel investor and now I'm bootstrapping it. The story isn't over. Before and better than money, I'm galvanized by the experience. I know more who I am and what I'm capable of: Part of my entrepreneurial work, it appears, is seeing that in others.
A couple of years I could only have said that speculatively. Today I can say it empirically.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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