Episode 274： What Van Halen Can Teach Every Entrepreneur
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode of Value Team, host Patrick Bedevans talks about a clause in Van Halen's contract that every entrepreneur can learn from. It's a key piece of advice you can use as an entrepreneur to protect yourself and your business.
Transcript
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30 seconds, one time for the underdog, ignition sequence start, let me see you put em up, reach
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the sky, touch the stars up above, cause it's one time for the underdog, one time for the
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I'm Patrick Bedevi, host of Value Team, and today I'm going to talk about a clause, yes
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a clause, like a clause within a contract that a famous rock star, Van Halen, put in
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his contract that every single entrepreneur can learn from.
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Van Halen, back in the days, they were a rock band, so when these guys would go and perform
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in the Boston Gardens, or the Toronto Maple Leafs Garden, or it was Chicago Garden, wherever
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it was, the AV equipment wasn't prepared to have a rock band like Van Halen, they would
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come and there was a lot of different things, if he didn't do it right, it wasn't safe for
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the attendees, people could get hurt, there was a lot of different things to it, and they
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had to protect themselves, so they had a clause, and here's what the clause was, when they got
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a promoter to come and promote them and get all these different setups everywhere, right,
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the promoter would have to sign a contract with dozens of stipulations, they had writers,
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is what they called it, on the contract that Van Halen had, if you don't go through these
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dozens of things that we have on the checklist, we don't pay you at the end of the show, and
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so the promoter knew, if I get you in the gardens, if I do this, if I do this, if I don't follow
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these dozens, you're not going to get paid at the end of the show, so a lot of people
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used to say, you know, David Lee Roth, he's a weird guy anyways, all these stories about
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him going in his man cave, turn the lights off, and be there by himself for days to come
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out with music, he is a weird guy, he is this, he is that, he actually was a very,
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very brilliant mind, the whole group was a brilliant group, and here's what they did,
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one of the writers they had, in the contract to the promoter, they had things from what
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specific type of toilet paper they wanted on, and now 90% of the writers, 80% of the writers,
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were about how to make it safer for everybody else, but a couple of them were things that
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people would say, who cares about having this, one of them was, we want M&Ms in backstage,
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but in details, it says, but there can be no brown M&Ms in there at all, none, and if
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you don't read this line, we will not pay you, and the promoter would sign it, say they
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would come to perform in Chicago Gardens, or they would come to perform anywhere, what
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would happen, they would go through everything, first thing that we check is go in the back,
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in the backstage, and they would see the M&Ms, and we look for brown M&Ms, nope, there's brown
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M&Ms, we're not paying them, because they're not prepared, then they would have to go and
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check everything to make sure it was safe for people to attend their rock concert.
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Now, you may say, give me a break, that's just ridiculous, you know what I do say today?
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I say, pay attention to details. So many times, you know, in businesses, you're running a
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business, you're doing this, you're doing that, and you're doing a lot of things right,
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you're not paying attention to your expenses, you're not paying attention to the details of
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an operation, you're not paying attention to certain numbers you're supposed to track,
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you're not paying attention to certain paperwork you're supposed to submit the proper way, you're
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not paying attention to certain person that's not doing the right things, the proper way
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that could potentially hurt your company, you're not paying attention to the details, and eventually
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it ends up backfiring on you, and it ends up hurting you, if you don't pay attention to
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those specific details. So Van Halen, and your M&M story, what a great story. I would tell you
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to inspect your business as an entrepreneur, and ask yourself, what areas of my business
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details am I not paying attention to that are hurting my business? And if you're not going
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to do it, you've got to hire somebody to do that part, and their job specifically is to
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do what? To pay attention to those details, so it doesn't hurt you long term, and it protects
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you long term, and gives you the highest chance of succeeding as an entrepreneur.
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Thanks everybody for listening, and by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to
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Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so. Give us a five star, write a review if you haven't
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already, and if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me
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on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Just search my name, Patrick MidDavid, and
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I actually do respond back when you snap me, or send me a message on Instagram. With that
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being said, have a great day today. Take care everybody. Bye bye.