by Larry Brody

For reasons known only to the Great God of Irony, I’ve been good – I mean, really good – at two things over the years. Writing TV and playing the drums.
The irony of it being that both of those are skills that every single person in the universe believes he or she also has mastered…or could with, like, 45 minutes of fun masquerading as work.
So I gave up the professional writer’s stone face and laughed out loud at the following:
Quincy Jones Dings P. Diddy at Spotify Launch: ‘He Couldn’t Recognize a B-Flat’
“P. Diddy wouldn’t know a B-flat” if it hit him, said Jones in a conversation with musician Bruno Mars to mark the occasion of the app launch. “P. Diddy has a doctorate in marketing…. He’s got clothes companies and Ciroc vodka.”
FTR: My older son went to school with one of Quincy’s daughters. She’s a sitcom star now. He’s a producer of BigMedia Films You’ve Actually Seen. Most people probably think they could do that too, if they just had another 45 minutes to mess around.
They can’t.
Show business is hard, gang. Most of the people who don’t “make it” are so amazingly talented and skilled that your skulls would explode if you watched them do their thing. Those who do make it have all that plus a little something called discipline, which in this context is the ability to work not merely until they drop but after they’ve dropped as well. Coupled with an affability that would make the kindliest old grandma look like Dr. Evil.
(Yes, it’s true – that affability often is the first thing to go after the rocket to stardom ensconces Ms./Mr. Big Talent in the night sky.)
Both B. Diddy and Quincy Jones know what they’re doing. They just do different things. If you want to succeed, play it smart: Learn ’em all.