There was a humorous Cracked article “6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Person” by David Wong doing the rounds not long ago about the need to define your value to others in order to make you a more worthwhile person. I recommend you read it – it’s a timely reminder even if you already know this sort of thing.

The article immediately flashed me back a couple of years to when I brought an old friend of mine – with years of experience in the upper echelons of the NZ music industry- into one of my classes as a guest speaker. It was nominally supposed to be a communications lecture, but what he focused on instead was defining your own value for others. Basically the same message as the Cracked article but targeted more towards success in the music industries.

If you want to succeed in the music industry you need to provide value to others – either in the service sense if you’re going into audio engineering, or by producing content that people want to hear. This is exactly what slightly-delusional wanna-be rock stars need to hear.