What to do if you’re not good at business.

“I can’t do it.  I’ve got no business sense.”

If I had a buck for every young and old buck that has said that to me, I could capitalize Spider-man all over again.

That quote always comes up when they talk about getting into producing, or producing their own work, or when they tell me they have an idea for a new app but don’t know how to get it off the ground.

“I’m just no good at business.”

Somewhere along the way, the word business became synonymous with balance sheets and mortgage derivates.

But I’ll tell you a secret.  That’s not the only thing that business is.  In fact, that’s not even the most important part about “business.”

And the cool thing about Producing as a business is that Producers (and this means CEOs, Board Chairmen and App Developers) can have all sorts of other areas of expertise, and have brilliant careers.

Some Producers I know are experts at marketing.  Some negotiate better than Alan Dershowitz.  Some are great at product development (coming up with ideas that can make audiences stand up and cheer).  And some have more personal relationships than John Mayer.

The key is to make the most of what you do know.

You think Steve Jobs was a master of financial charts?  Or Henry Ford?  Or do you think each President of the United States understands the ins/outs of the world’s economic system (remember when Obama and McCain were called to the White House during the ’08 campaign so that someone could explain to them how bad the recession situation was?)?

The best Presidents and Producers use what they’ve got to get things done, and then they surround themselves with other experts who know more than they do.  Yep, that’s why the best leaders out there are ego-less and know when to bring on the best General Managers, the best Advertising Executives, and the best Accountants to make up for any deficiencies they may have.

But they don’t not do whatever they want to do just because they are insecure about their “business” sense.

They just know that the best business sense is knowing when to hand over your “business” to someone else.

 

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Ken created one of the first Broadway podcasts, recording over 250 episodes over 7 years. It features interviews with A-listers in the theater about how they “made it”, including 2 Pulitzer Prize Winners, 7 Academy Award Winners and 76 Tony Award winners. Notable guests include Pasek & Paul, Kenny Leon, Lynn Ahrens and more.

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