It has been my experience that with any endeavor, the right
tools are required.
The tools can be physical, like a screwdriver or pipe
wrench, or they can be intellectual, like experience or formal education. In most cases, mastery is achieved when both
the required physical and intellectual tools are acquired.
Ironically, this lesson was taught to me by an old friend, John Jacobs, who started his career with an
entertainment business degree in Radio and Television but eventually became a
successful entrepreneur in general contracting and home inspection.
In architecting mastery in the entertainment business or any
other profession, you must decide what tools are essential versus those that
will make you stand out from the crowd.
I will use my own recording studio to illustrate an
example.
In a recording studio, it is essential to have a method of recording. The possibilities are endless. You could start with the microphone on your
smartphone or laptop and have the capability to record, but that would hardly
entice customers (unless you are Jess Greenberg, but let’s face it: I don’t think it is her sound quality that is
attracting millions of viewers, but it’s hard to argue with success!).
You could choose any number of offline systems from various
companies to do your recording, and many of them produce superior sound
quality. But those systems make
integration difficult and the start-to-finish process slow and inefficient. Try
publishing a YouTube video from a non-integrated console.
In my studio, there are three computers, and each of them
has there own purpose. The most important
to my clients is the Mac Pro tower, which is used for recording. It is (for now) the most state of the art
creative machine, with every bit of ROM and RAM available. It doesn’t crash, and nothing is ever lost.
My PC is where I like to edit video. From my perspective, Movie Studio Platinum
surpasses anything that Apple has produced.
That is just my personal opinion.
My third computer is my Mac laptop. That is where I go to school, and leads us
back to the concept of “intellectual”
tools.
“Never buy a tool before you need it”, my old friend John
says. “And once you need it, trust me,
you will need it again.” What he is
referring to is the idea that once you are forced to do something, you will
learn how to do it, and even master it. And once you’ve learned how to do it,
you will find the need or desire to do it again. Learning how to do it can be a function of experience or academics,
or both.
My goal is to finalize the details of a successful entertainment
business. I have the necessary physical
tools, and I have gained years of experience, yet I am still in search of some intellectual
tools that will make it all a success.
Define and find your required tools. Don’t let others' opinions get in your
way. Ask yourself if the tool is
critical and if so, go get it. Then ask:
will it make me stand out against the competition? If it will, then go buy it. However, if you find yourself becoming a
collector of tools without a goal, reevaluate.
