Thank You Joe Tucci

Before I switched from IT to music, I was invited by Erez Ofer , a venture partner at 83NORTH , to attend a gathering of IT executives, venture capitalists and tech company founders at a swank Boston hotel. The keynote speaker was Joe Tucci, the former CEO of EMC. His company, a computer storage company, was sold in 2015 to Dell Technologies for $67 billion.?

The topic of Joe's talk was success. And the inspiration behind his own success resonated with me.?

As I remember the story, a priest at the Catholic school Joe attended said to him,?

• “If you want to be successful, show up.”
• “If you want to be really successful, show up on time.”
• “If you want to be the best, show up on time and be prepared.”

This advice applies equally to the musician who wants to “make it in music” as it does to the person who wants to grow a technology company big enough to be sold for $67 billion. Throughout the book I am now writing, I’ll share stories of musicians who have taken that advice to heart and those that have not.?

My first story is about a band leader that did not follow that advice. His band, like most bands, had been through several different lineups. But he had remained consistent as the leader of the band over a number of years. They had several thousand fans, but had almost no financial success.

The band had just recorded their first full-length album, and the recoupment for the cost of the album was going to be simple. The label had arranged an album release concert, as well as several band gigs and solo gigs for the band leader. The proceeds from those gigs would more than pay for the relatively low cost of the album.

On the first gig, a solo gig, the band leader went to the wrong location, despite the fact that the performance location was in the agreement he had acknowledged.

On the second gig, this one a band gig, the band failed to show up at all. The band leader didn't follow the instructions in the contract and had told all of the band members the wrong start time. He was off by 6 hours.

On the third gig, the band showed up on time. In fact they arrived almost 90 minutes early. But their gear wasn’t working. The band leader spent the better part of an hour trying to diagnose a problem with his overly complex array of guitar effects pedals. The band ended up starting 45 minutes late.

Making it in music is hard. It's very hard. But if you don't follow the advice of Joe Tucci's priest, it's virtually impossible.