Talent Plus Execution Equals Success

Derek Sivers, the original founder of CD Baby had a great blog post about business ideas and success that relates to what you need to be successful in the music industry. I think that many people believe it is about talent. It isn't. It is talent multiplied by execution. Sivers' blog post http://sivers.org/multiply is called "Ideas are just a multiplier of execution" and as he explains "ideas are worth nothing unless they are executed". So it is with your music career. Your musical talent (recorded performance and live performance) is nothing unless you execute. One of the key elements of execution is a career plan. What are you going to execute if you don't have a plan? Plans ARE what you execute.

Sivers places values on ideas and then on execution and says that the success is the multiplier of the two. I would like to change that into the following with talent and execution. In talent - I would include both your recorded performance and your live performance. So let's take Sivers idea to the music industry:
AWFUL TALENT = -1
WEAK TALENT = 1
SO-SO TALENT = 5
GOOD TALENT = 10
GREAT TALENT = 15
BRILLIANT TALENT = 20

NO EXECUTION = $1
WEAK EXECUTION = $1000
SO-SO EXECUTION = $10,000
GOOD EXECUTION = $100,000
GREAT EXECUTION = $1,000,000
BRILLIANT EXECUTION = $10,000,000

Then as Sivers says, "To make a business, you need to multiply the two". So, to make a music industry career, you need to multiply your talent level with execution. The most brilliant talent, with no execution, is worth $20. I would also add that your talent cannot be stagnant; to make a career, you need to continue to take your talent to higher and higher levels. Because the bar on "Brilliant" will keep going up.

That's why you need to know where you are going and exactly where your career is now - that way you can make the plan to take you from where you are to where you want to go. And then you will need to execute that plan and adjust the plan and execute some more. That's why businesses need a business plan - it is not something that is completed to make the bank happy. It is essential for success. And that's why you need a plan for your career in the music industry.