…For a pretty cash advance, now they got a song and dance

   That you didn’t recoup, more soup wit’ ya meal?

…

Get a good lawyer so problems won’t pile

   You don’t wanna make a pitch that’s Wild…

A Tribe Called Quest ♦ Show Business

Yes, you need a good lawyer, negotiator or deal maker.  Do we really need a piece to advocate the value of the hired professional?  Tribe takes a little stab at the business practices of the former Wild Pitch Records company, but the business lesson applies in any industry.  BPM thinks this is painfully clear, but the tendency of the successful manager or well paid executive is to believe that they are the smartest person in the room.  The true success knows this is not the case and finds ways to delegate to those with greater strengths, because ultimately they will make you look like the smartest one in the room.  Hey, maybe that does make you the smartest one in the room.

Also, BPM loves the fundamental lessons learned from advancing and recouping.  The notion of getting a bump on the front-end, only to have everything snatched in the back-end plays out in many forms.  People read the Express Terms and conditions of a Deal Point Memo and ignore the fine print of the Standard Terms and Conditions that take what was given.  Inexperienced people in the field go into negotiation unprepared and giveaway the best chits in negotiation (with a wild pitch) when they probably did not even need to give away something that valuable.

BPM TAKEAWAY#33:

• DELEGATE TO THOSE WITH OTHER STRENGTHS

• THE SMARTEST KNOW THAT THERE IS SOME ONE SMARTER

…Put your Filas on.  I know you’re wearing gold

But you’re eating popcorn…

Schooly D ♦ Put your Filas On

Philly’s own godfather of the minimalist old-school Park Side Killers rap puts all we need in a pithy couplet.  BMP has a soft spot for this uncluttered bit of wisdom.  E-40 has a similar statement about rappers buying cars the price of condos when they do not own homes.  One aspect of this is: why look equity-rich when you are cash poor?  The flashy car example is also a funny one because it is really a depreciating asset.  The home might actually increase in value.  Again, you can’t dress flashy, while you have no cash in your pockets.

In any event the other aspect about this that BPM likes is that it puts the popcorn eating hustler back to work.  Back in Schooly’s day, those Filas were hustler shoes.  You put them on along with your track suit and headed to the club.  The promoters, marketers and DJs were making ends.  If your shoes are wingtips or Timberlands, it doesn’t matter.  Clean-‘em up, lace-‘em up and put-‘em on because it is time to put cash in your pocket.  Your organization needs to get paid.

BPM TAKEAWAY#28:

• THE ECONOMIC TERM IS CASHFLOW, NOT FLASHFLOW

• GET YOUR GAME SHOES ON

…have you ever in your life experienced . . .

a day where Murphy’s law takes over your life

…and when the day was over you just had to say

you said man it’s just one of those days…

DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince  ♦   Just One of Those Days (1987)

…Yo, it’s a warning shot over the bow

Truth be told, this ain’t my style

You gotta understand some stuff a man can’t allow…

Okay – people dissing Will sat on a wall

People dissing Will had a great fall

All the king’s horses and all the king’s men

couldn’t put none of their careers together again

You get it?….

Will Smith aka the Fresh Prince   ♦  Mr. Niceguy; Lost and Found (2005)

Look at these lessons learned over two decades.  It is not the wisdom of the lyrics but what it illustrates about career longevity and development.   Who would have thought that a kid from suburban Philadelphia with a potential one-hit wonder novelty rap status would turn into a multi-million dollar Hollywood power player actor-producer?  The keys are found in his name and these lyrics.  He was the Fresh Prince, but he certainly stands as the embodiment of what managers often try to glean from Machiavelli’s The Prince.

The Prince should have the capability to reinvent himself as need be.  Fresh Prince to Will Smith certainly qualifies.  The Prince must be able to be ruthless and others fear him when need be.  Note how The Fresh Prince transformed from a hapless victim of circumstances to that of the vicious, no-more-Mr. Niceguy that having suffered the fools that would dismiss him, puts them on notice he can make sure they never work again.  Look who is all grown up.

You can’t always be loved; sometimes people have to be afraid of you.  Now management by fear is not what BPM is recommending; but the ability to impose fear needs to be part of your management skill set.  Again your human resources development objective is to create a team of talented people who motivate themselves by their own desires and fears with little, if any, heavy handed motivation by you.  You manage the team like a ship at sea.  You direct their wind sails, but you don’t need to be a blow hard making the very wind that moves their ships on the ocean.  Yet, they need to know that you are capable of summoning thunder and lightening out of the sky for those that doubt your abilities or seriousness

.

BPM TAKEAWAY#32:

• IMPOSE FEAR WITHOUT PEOPLE WORKING IN FEAR

• YOU MUST BE BELIEVED TO BE THE GOOD COP AND THE BAD COP AS CIRCUMSTANCES NEED