Are you by any chance enjoying “Good Enough” from Jussie Smollet. Who is Smollet ? You must be kidding me. Still don’t know him. ( I’m throwing my arms in despair ) He is a part of the main cast from the popular Empire series.

What !!! You don’t know Empire either. Ok you do. I was about to stop bogging. Its a fan favorite series. Empire has just finished in season two. It rocks of great songs like the following;

• Good Enough feat Jussie Smollet
• You are so beautiful feat Smollet and Yazz
• Snitch Bitch feat Petey Pablo and Terrence Howard
• No doubt about it feat Smollet and Pitbull

There just so many songs to get you head banging.

Anyway back to the purpose of this post. I wanted to focus more on the career lessons than the very obvious entertainment value.

Lets get straight into the four of the most obvious lessons from the series.

1. Everyone starts small and grows:

In the series Cookie and Lucius start with nothing. They begin by selling records from the boot of their car. Eventually, they rise to world wide status and fame. Of course lots of wealth come with that. Such accomplishments has respect written all over it.

Usually entrepreneurship is difficult. Not all of us are born for entrepreneurship. That’s a bitter truth. Still if you wish to go down that path, don’t be afraid to embrace the hard times. And when they do come, remember why you embarked on the path to be your own boss.

2. Get star players involved:

There were times when Empire , Dynasty and other groups wanted to recruit one artist or another. These pit record companies against each other and into direct competition over not just the artists,  the music charts,  or bragging rights but also dominance.

It’s no secret that you can’t grow a businesses by yourself. Growing a business means you have to get others involved. Still the question is which persons do you bring in. That is when hiring ( a very pivotal part of businesses ) comes in. Make the wrong hires and you harm your business. Make the right one, and you have set yourself up for the big time.

A business should always be on the lookout for better employees. Better means more efficient and results producing employees. Basically those who can bring more revenue to the organization.

If you want to grow your company to a million dollars, then be ready to hire some one whose value is just about equivalent to one million dollars.

Lets look at this analogy. Look at the big players from sports clubs. Their recipe for quick success is simple. Recruit the very best. The amount doesn’t matter. Just get the best into the club.

Competition is crazy these days. Nobody has a day to waste. To achieve success you could either

a. wait and grow your team to professional levels

b. get in the professionals who can achieve the aim of taking your businesses to the next level, really fast.

From the Empire series, I see that record companies, usually go for option B.

3. Everybody wants better

In the series, whenever its crunch time to make difficult decisions, the characters always think about themselves first. From Andre with his scheming wife to Lucius everybody has something they want.

The world is unfair to lots of people. Perhaps the best way to not regret later is to take the moves that wold profit you most ( at least that’s what I am picking up ). Employees would always go for better offers. The more attractive ones. After all, everyone is opportunistic. If an employer plays down, the value the employees brings and he is most likely set to lose them to the competition.

4. Consistently work, and consistently train

In practically every episode, there is one artist or another training in the studios. Someone coming up with a new song. That explains why the songs must be so good. After all, these body rocking songs don’t just write themselves.

They take effort. These are the effort of hard working professionals. Its time we all took a cue from that.

The amount of time spent in studios training and rehearsing is incredulous. If everybody could put in as much effort in their real jobs then, the speed at which the business grows would be astonishing to all. The work rate controls the grow rate of your startup or business.

I would end with a quote I remember said some where in the series.

“You want fame and wealth but are you ready to put in the work ? “

Thanks for sticking around. Looking forward to your comments.

Cheers.