You grow up in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. You drop out of college. Your dad is your best friend but you don’t want to work the docks like him. You’re determined to “do something special.” You get a job sweeping the floor at recording studio. You get fired—twice. You’ll do anything to work in the music business, including working on Easter Sunday. That’s how you meet John Lennon. This is the day your life begins. You focus on being of service. You stay in the room and in the saddle. Bruce Springsteen teaches you what work ethic really means. You work with Tom Petty, Bono, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, and countless others. You’ll produce hundreds of songs. You get restless, start a family, and start a record company. You get advice from David Geffen. You figure out your edge is producing the producers. You work with the absolute best, hand them the keys, and tell them to drive. You’re a scrapper, you’re persistent, you use fear as a tailwind, you keep the main thing the main thing, you work all the time, you put 100% into whatever is in front of you. You’re described as fiercely competitive, insanely driven, and brilliant. You can never turn it off and you don’t understand why everyone else isn’t like that too. You start multiple companies, make billions of dollars, and tell the best stories when you go on podcasts after you retire. You are Jimmy Iovine.
This episode is what I learned from rewatching the documentary The Defiant Ones and listening to these excellent interviews with Jimmy Iovine.
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