{"id":2729,"date":"2010-03-14T06:26:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T14:26:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2729"},"modified":"2010-03-14T06:26:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T14:26:49","slug":"money-power-fame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/14\/money-power-fame\/","title":{"rendered":"Money, Power & Fame"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read a story on the airplane…<\/p>\n

Not only am I not sure what time it is, I wouldn’t even bet on what DAY it is!<\/p>\n

I got off the airplane and my BlackBerry said 3:22 AM.\u00c2\u00a0 How could that be?\u00c2\u00a0 My watch said an hour earlier.\u00c2\u00a0 Took me about twenty minutes to factor in Daylight Savings Time.\u00c2\u00a0 Fucking BlackBerry can’t figure out what time zone I’m in, but it can adjust for Daylight Savings Time?<\/p>\n

Much earlier, as it rained outside, I had lunch on the twelfth floor of the Royal York with Roger Faxon, Chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing.\u00c2\u00a0 They say these guys are clueless?\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t agree with you when it comes to Mr. Faxon.\u00c2\u00a0 His views were practical, he had a handle on the landscape and informed me that EMI’s record company and publishing company were two separate entities under the same umbrella, they were already divided, it had been a condition of Terra Firma’s purchase.\u00c2\u00a0 So when the whip comes down…<\/p>\n

Which it inevitably will.<\/p>\n

Then I journeyed with Jake to the airport, which was a clusterfuck nonpareil.\u00c2\u00a0 The "Wall Street Journal" said to arrive two and a half hours in advance, ever since that terrorist incident at the end of last year travel from Canada to the States has been…well, let’s just say they’ve gotten a lot stricter at immigration.<\/p>\n

Not that it made any difference.\u00c2\u00a0 My plane ended up being delayed by two and a half hours.<\/p>\n

You see there was weather.\u00c2\u00a0 Wind shear in T.O., our plane had to stop in Chi-town for more fuel after turning back, afraid of the waiting disaster at Pearson.\u00c2\u00a0 As for NYC…\u00c2\u00a0 Something was blowing really hard there too, flights were fucked up all day.\u00c2\u00a0 Seymour told me he’d considered taking the bus.\u00c2\u00a0 He had friends in for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, he needed to get home.<\/p>\n

THE BUS?<\/p>\n

I couldn’t quite envision it, Seymour Stein journeying like Joe Buck from T.O. to NYC.\u00c2\u00a0 Only eight hours he said.\u00c2\u00a0 THE BUS?\u00c2\u00a0 I remember my parents making me take it from Connecticut back to college in Vermont.\u00c2\u00a0 This was before every kid in America got a car when he turned 16, so his parents didn’t have to schlep him around.\u00c2\u00a0 I was scarred for life!\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, if you want someone to strive for economic greatness, just make them take the bus.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a window into a low class world that you’re dying to escape.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, did they even HAVE buses anymore?\u00c2\u00a0 I thought the companies followed the railroads into bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

Last I heard, the flight to New York was canceled and rescheduled for 7 AM.\u00c2\u00a0 Last I saw Seymour, he was heading for the gate.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe he should have taken the highway.<\/p>\n

And after two hours of insight with Seymour, covering the history of the music industry from Sid Nathan to Lyor Cohen, he was replaced in his seat by Vince.\u00c2\u00a0 Who I’d seen flying in the front of the plane on the way in.<\/p>\n

NO, Getty Images doesn’t pay for business class.\u00c2\u00a0 Vince is EXECUTIVE PLATINUM!\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, the CEO of Getty flies in the back of the plane.\u00c2\u00a0 At least that’s the ticket he buys.\u00c2\u00a0 At least that’s what Vince said.<\/p>\n

And like Bonnie Raitt sang, the luck of the draw got me upgraded to one of the two empty seats in business class.\u00c2\u00a0 Which was a godsend, having already spent the length of the journey to L.A. at the airport.<\/p>\n

And the ride was bumpy.\u00c2\u00a0 But I read an article in "Vanity Fair"…<\/p>\n

Did you read Michael Lewis’ "Liar’s Poker"?\u00c2\u00a0 He worked at Salomon Brothers and told the story.\u00c2\u00a0 One I’ve never forgotten. Of blowing up bankers all over the world.\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, Goldman Sachs had to unload paper, and if someone in a far-flung country, or the keeper of the pension funds lost a bundle, hell, it was just business.<\/p>\n

And it freaked Lewis out so much he quit, married Tabitha Soren and started following baseball.<\/p>\n

Well, not exactly.\u00c2\u00a0 He did end up marrying the MTV News queen.\u00c2\u00a0 His most famous book is "Moneyball".\u00c2\u00a0 But he’s still an expert on Wall Street.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s one of the few writers who can make it comprehensible.\u00c2\u00a0 Wow, you can read this story online!<\/p>\n

\n
Betting on the Blind Side<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

You’re never going to read it online.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you’re probably never even going to read it.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s just the point.\u00c2\u00a0 The article is about Michael Burry, who figured out the mortgage market was gonna tank and bet against it.\u00c2\u00a0 Burry was the leading edge.<\/p>\n

But this story isn’t about money.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about dedication.<\/p>\n

You see Michael Burry was passionate.\u00c2\u00a0 He was a doctor, training at the hospital, enduring those endless hours, but still he found time to pore over prospectuses, study stocks and pontificate online.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point when he went pro, some of the most famous traders in America found him, invested in him!<\/p>\n

Let me make this clear.\u00c2\u00a0 This is like making music in your basement and getting a call from Doug Morris or Timbaland or David Foster.\u00c2\u00a0 But they don’t want to mold you, they don’t want to change you, they don’t want you to do anything different, they just want A PIECE OF YOUR ACTION!<\/p>\n

Yup, they found Burry on the Internet.<\/p>\n

Isn’t it interesting that warhorses in the music business will pooh-pooh the Net, saying you can’t break an act there, that it comes down to radio and television, but the real money men are trolling for info online?<\/p>\n

And how did Burry get so good at picking stocks?\u00c2\u00a0 BY STUDYING!<\/p>\n

Yup, doing the work.<\/p>\n

This is Gladwell time.<\/p>\n

We live in a country where no one wants to do the work.<\/p>\n

Oh, I know that’s an overstatement.\u00c2\u00a0 But most people want to watch television.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to focus on their image.\u00c2\u00a0 Is it any wonder they’re left behind?<\/p>\n

Not that you need a formal education to make it.\u00c2\u00a0 You can’t learn the stock market in school.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to learn it on your own, like the music business.<\/p>\n

And Burry’s returns at his Scion fund are confoundingly large.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all about value.\u00c2\u00a0 He bets on fundamentally sound companies that are experiencing a bit of trouble.\u00c2\u00a0 He hangs in there during the downward spiral in order to ride the roller coaster to the top, making beaucoup bucks along the way.<\/p>\n

This is like investing in a band that may not look great, may need to woodshed a bit, may need to make three or four albums, but when it gets it together will be a gold mine.\u00c2\u00a0 We can call it the Kings of Leon.\u00c2\u00a0 We can call it artist development. We can call it ANYTHING but flavor of the moment.<\/p>\n

That’s the point.\u00c2\u00a0 Are you willing to do it differently?\u00c2\u00a0 Are you willing to do the work and come up with your own conclusions, your own solutions?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s Steve Jobs’ way.\u00c2\u00a0 When everybody said you’ve got to have open standards, he promoted closed systems.\u00c2\u00a0 And now he’s the big winner.<\/p>\n

And Burry got so deep into it, figuring out when and what mortgage bonds were gonna tank, that he bought credit default swaps and made…enough money to buy your entire neighborhood.\u00c2\u00a0 And the one next to you. And the one next to that.<\/p>\n

By being brilliant.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though so many investors said his plan was lunacy and wanted no part of it.<\/p>\n

THIS is the American story.\u00c2\u00a0 Not making a mix tape and partying with Paris Hilton and getting a photo in TMZ…\u00c2\u00a0 Snooki is a diversion for the masses, the losers.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to be a winner?<\/p>\n

Winners start off in the wilderness.\u00c2\u00a0 They do it their own way.\u00c2\u00a0 They stick to their guns.\u00c2\u00a0 They work incessantly and they never give up.<\/p>\n

Whew.\u00c2\u00a0 That just does not sound like enough people in the record business, on either side of the fence, talent or businessman.<\/p>\n

We live in a confusing, crazy world.\u00c2\u00a0 But one thing is constant.\u00c2\u00a0 The winners pay their dues.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s not solely time on the chain gang.\u00c2\u00a0 No, there’s a ton of anxiety involved.\u00c2\u00a0 Questioning yourself, taking risks, sticking to your guns when no one believes in you.<\/p>\n

It’s every man for himself out there.\u00c2\u00a0 Shouldn’t be, but it is.<\/p>\n

There’s a safety net in Canada.\u00c2\u00a0 In Sweden.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the socialism you decry.\u00c2\u00a0 But in the good old United States, the game is stacked against you.\u00c2\u00a0 Those with power, with money, have erected walls to keep you out.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you think kissing butt is the way to get ahead, you’re delusional.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about how you can get signed, it’s about how you can beat Universal at its own game.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve got to be smarter than Lucian Grainge.\u00c2\u00a0 Believe me, these people exist.\u00c2\u00a0 And they’re gonna be the winners.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re the ones we’re gonna be reading about in "Vanity Fair" five years from now.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read a story on the airplane… Not only am I not sure what time it is, I wouldn’t even bet on what DAY it is! I got off the airplane and my BlackBerry said 3:22 AM.\u00c2\u00a0 How could that be?\u00c2\u00a0 My watch said an hour earlier.\u00c2\u00a0 Took me about twenty minutes to factor in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-I1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2730,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions\/2730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}