The future of the general business, casuals, jobbing musician has changed, is changing; it’s “changed!“Every decent enough musician is introducing themselves, and their product, to an over-saturated marketplace.  With so many services appearing the same, I see two differentiators amongst the majority.One group of musicians possesses more sophisticated arrangements and quality of musicianship (as judged by musicians).Groups are competing for being the lowest cost provider.Amongst the minority, I see two differentiators.Longevity in the marketplace. A small number of musicians have been in the market for more than four years.Bands with the highest number of bookings per year appear to enjoy themselves a lot more.How does this impact the customer?The customer gets watered-down choices making it more challenging to determine who’s the answer to their question. They have to work harder to find the diamonds in the rough.The quality of musicianship matters less and less. Not every customer possesses enough knowledge to make sense of the difference.Customers make purchasing decisions with the minority. The ones in the market place with longevity are safe. The ones who appear to enjoy themselves are safe and look like them.I’m not suggesting that we quit, throw in the towel, and not try to gig. I am suggesting that we understand the market, what’s needed, and go against the grain. The beginning of a series on the marketplace and your role within it starts now.

Yesterday (today) I wrote (write) my last article for the failure series. I felt it appropriate as I had a significant fail that day.

Like you, I have pet peeves or small things that profoundly irritate me.
Like you, I wish people would not do things that irritate me.
Like you, I wish people would do what I say.

I woke up in the best of moods: the sun was out, the wind calming, and I felt a cool breeze. Indeed, in my mind, I was “blessed and highly favored.” How could this day get any worse? I live with my sister.

As a child, kids bullied me.   As a child, people would choose others before me. As a child, people always seemed to have better things. As a child, I thought like a child. 

During early adulthood, I would see others and want to be like them. I noticed leaders chose others over me. People would often post about their grandiose life on social media, and I would be jealous. As an early adult, I thought like a child.  

My mind works too fast too often. Growing up as a teenager, it was a struggle. Later as a young adult, it became a headache.

As I’ve intimated in previous entries, I live with bipolar disorder. I feel people create a stigma in their head about what that means; it means different things for different people. For me, when I’ve been up, it means that my mind races a hundred years into the future.

My father would tell me, as a kid:

“God and ‘me’ make a majority.” — John Brady, parent

He would later come to regret imparting this advice.

I am a principled individual. I strongly believe in my values. More often than not, I have done what I think is right in spite of the majority opinion. More often than not, I ruined relationships because I felt the other party violated a sacred belief - my opinion.

I used to own a music contracting agency. This type of business hires musicians for gigs — a broker. When I started this business, I was young - 18 years old. I started it because I had something other musicians didn’t. I had access.  

If you’re going to introduce a new product to the market, having access to the market is critical. Being able to connect others to your product or service leads to increased business. My problem was not the access; my problem was that I was aware others did not have the access I had.  

When I used to be a bandleader, I had a terrible reputation as being a hard ass. I was. I dedicated my entire self and soul to the music I performed. I expected no less from those playing with me. That was my problem. My expectations did not allow for mistakes.  

Night after night, I demanded of myself flawless execution. There was never a reason not to do it right. One musician even asked me, “Brady, I don’t know what you want from me.” My response, “I want one thing, one thing. I want it right. Always.”  

If you know me, you know that lawyers raised me, two of them. It’s almost like the wolf pack raising Mowgli. My parents bred me to be a fighter. I don’t like this quality about myself. Well, no, I like it in balance.  

In the past, I was working for an organization where I felt we were overpaying for service. Moreover, I felt as if the vendors knew we were overpaying for the service. Then, my boss challenged me to cut the cost by almost 100%. Remember how I mentioned that I am bred to fight? Yeah.   

The only failure I know is the failure to embrace failure. When I used to lead a large department, I would ask the leaders that reported to me - how did you fail today? Would you be surprised to learn that no one enjoyed answering the question? Quite often, I would hear, “Well, I don’t think I failed…” or, “I don’t like how the word ‘fail’ sits with me.” Okay, I get it. No one likes to think they failed. But, I believe it’s the use of this harsh and extreme word that motivates us to profoundly think about our actions or inactions. It can’t stop there, though. In my mind, the only time “failure” does not sit right is when I choose not to learn and change from my “failure.” Or, when I decide not to learn my lesson. Learning the lesson is growth, and growth is life. Will Smith and David Goggins have commented on this topic a bit. I believe they, and others like them, are right. What they get, that I wish more people would, is that failure is to be embraced. To embrace failure is to embrace learning is to embrace life. I am all about “coming alive” and becoming a more effective version of yourself. For the next few days, I am going to share my own failures. What I learned and how I’ve turned many negatives into positives. I hope you’ll consider following along.Also…if you know others that would find this content helpful, please be generous and share.