The Joke’s on Louis C.K.
I love this exchange from Louis...no matter how novel his DIY startup-like strategy has been, it all comes down to grueling hard work:<p>----<p><i>Q. You’ve spent the last several months on a tour where you sold tickets only through your Web site. How did that go?</i><p>A. Boy, did that work. It was so satisfying to get that done. The special, I didn’t need to do anything. I just made it and offered it. But the tickets were really tricky. The big ticket companies make exclusive arrangements with these rooms. They pay them just to not work with others. So if a company gives you 30 grand a year to stay away from anybody else, you need it. We didn’t attack their territory. We just went to places that they didn’t care about.<p><i>Does it matter that what you’ve achieved, with your online special and your tour can’t be replicated by other performers who don’t have the visibility or fan base that you do?</i><p>Why do you think those people don’t have the same resources that I have, the same visibility or relationship? What’s different between me and them?<p><i>You have the platform. You have the level of recognition.</i><p>So why do I have the platform and the recognition?<p><i>At this point you’ve put in the time.</i><p>There you go. There’s no way around that. There’s people that say: “It’s not fair. You have all that stuff.” I wasn’t born with it. It was a horrible process to get to this. It took me my whole life. If you’re new at this — and by “new at it,” I mean 15 years in, or even 20 — you’re just starting to get traction. Young musicians believe they should be able to throw a band together and be famous, and anything that’s in their way is unfair and evil. What are you, in your 20s, you picked up a guitar? Give it a minute.