Paper or Follow Thru?

A friend of mine quoted me a saying today "Good on paper, bad on follow-thru" and we both had a chuckle as to how well that seemed to apply to many in not only the music business but other businesses as well.  Often times people are impressed by resumes, online profiles, pedigrees, schooling, etc., etc.  There are a number of measuring devices we try to utilize based on person's history to give us an idea as to how we think this individual stands in regards to how they go about their business.  I truly believe the most over looked of these devices is good old fashion success.  Not the people that had it once because then we can write it off as luck but someone who has over the years demonstrated the ability to continue to achieve success multiple times based on the ability to grasp the task at at hand, diligence, desire to win and of course, a lucky star.  But as they say, the 'harder I work, the luckier I get'.  I am product of the street, a graduate of the Univ. of Iowa with a B.G.S. (Bachelor of General Studies). I moved to Los Angeles with $50 and no car on a Thursday and by Tuesday the following week I was taking the number 3 bus line to the Atlantic Records office as a temp filling in where needed.  As fate would have it, I am proud to say I was personally involved in the signing, developing and navigating artists and their projects that sold well over 40 million records.  I was responsible for making people and my organization $100's of millions and that is something that can never be taken away.  I went out on my own a little over 5 years ago (I hate to say that's when I started to be an entrepreneur as anyone who knows the risks of being an A&R person knows that it carries as much risk as any entrepreneur), raised angel financing and built a business that offered media publishing tools for artists to record and sell their live shows directly to their fans online.  Recognizing the habits of the online live music fan after capturing and marrying it to portals such as the AT&T Blueroom I jumped at an opportunity to benefit talent and their fans even more based around the event experience , tour histories and the media that comes from it, thus I began Total Live Music.  I've sat in meetings with some captains of industry and geniuses of the arts and overall have lived a very blessed life.  Why do I ramble on about such things? Because our country has been going through one of the most difficult times I have ever been a witness to.  Being from Iowa, I had grandparents who would tell stories of the Great Depression while working on the farm.  I also heard stories of heroism and loss by my family during World War II and when my father was called to duty he didn't hesitate.  These were people I revered, hard working, decent people who would stand up for what was right, answered the call of their country and their success was measured by the closeness of the family and their ability to harvest and provide food for those they loved and cared for.  I guess in today's world they "wouldn't look good on paper but had great follow thru".  There are a lot of people in this world right now that need jobs, they didn't all go to an Ivy league school, work for Yahoo/Google/Apple, didn't have the family pedigree that put them in play, etc.  They just happen to have a lot of character, which to me is the measurement of success and the more you have, the more successful you are. I'll take that every time!