This New Years Eve, and Rika and I attended a Chamber Music concert with a post concert champagne reception. I don’t know the difference between Dvorak, Mendelssohn, and Mozart, but I can appreciate beautiful music. It was a lovely evening, filled with analogies, three of which I will share with you.

#1 – Mastery Takes Time

The violin (and viola and cello) only has four strings. One of the guest musicians was Catherine French, who has been playing the violin since the age of four. Julliard, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Hall – she’s very good, and she plays beautiful music on those four strings.

Any one of us can go out and buy a violin, buy the music, and pay for classes, but it will take time before we can play like Ms. French. She makes it look easy. Donald Trump plays the business / money violin. He has been exposed to it his whole life. He makes millions of dollars from the same opportunities that we all have.

My point is that it takes time to learn how to play the game. I see people attend a Bootcamp and then whine because they’re not making a fortune within two months, with a few hours of work. It would do them good to read this analogy.

#2 – Together We Do Amazing Things

First work: Octet in Eb Major, Opus 20 – Allegro moderato, ma con fuoco by Felix Mendelssohn: Five musicians playing violins, two with violas, two with cellos. Nine people playing together in perfect harmony, making beautiful music. Real team work, each person reading their own music, playing their own instrument, taking full and absolute responsibility for their contribution, focused, committed, after massive preparation and practice. The failure of one affects the whole team. The world is watching.

My point is that teamwork makes the dream work, and together we do amazing things, but each team member is responsible and important. For the music to sound wonderful, each must do his or her part – there is no place for excuses and blame.

#3 – The Audience (or Marketplace) is Unforgiving

My final analogy is the audience. We paid good money to be there last night, and we expected value for our money, and excellence. Our time was valuable, and we wanted our money’s worth. We were not going to be impressed or understanding if one of the musicians arrived late with a weak excuse, or if one of them didn’t do his job properly.

My point is simple: The marketplace is unforgiving and demanding, and your competition is waiting to take your customers. Go big, or go home. Be as good as you can be, don’t make excuses. Deliver, or be replaced.

From My JV Broker Perspective

Finally, from a marketing perspective, the program for last night’s event contained no website, contact details, call to action, upsell, back-end, opportunities, or items for sale. And we were not entered into a database. This is another golden opportunity for any smart Joint Venture Broker to work with these wonderful artists, and everyone can make money.

Happy New Year!