FROM NADIR TO ZENITH: THE REAL ENTREPRENEURIAL LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF KATY PERRY
“I had no money. My car was impounded twice. Nothing was
going my way. People saw me as damaged goods.”-Katy Perry
“I think the lowest point in her life was when she called me,
her 16years old brother and asked me for money. I was like sorry I don’t even
have money for myself.”- Katy’s younger
brother
I’ve had this video, 'Katy Perry-Part of Me', on my laptop for
a while but I’ve never seen it as worth watching because I thought it was a film
and I was not interested in the title. One day I decided to play it and after watching
it for 2 minutes I saw that it was a documentary of Katy Perry and I knew great
learning would take place. Have it in mind that I knew the name, Katy Perry,
but I didn’t really know her. I couldn’t even identify her, though I’ve heard
one of her song before. As an entrepreneur, what I saw in the documentary was
the life of an entrepreneur not actually Katy, as a star. Any person who is willing
to be a successful entrepreneur must read this. Let me share some things I
learnt from the documentary with you:
11. You have to have a dream. It all begins with a dream and without a dream, there might
not be an entrepreneurial vision you are living for.
Hear what Katy said, “Since I was nine,
my dream has always been the same, to be on stage like a glittering costume and
hear thousands of people sing along with me. This moment is, my childhood dream
come true.”
22. The failure,
challenges and problems faced by entrepreneurs regardless of whether you
are in America, Europe or Africa are the same. Many times I felt like
entrepreneurship wouldn’t be this hard in USA or any other developed country as
I wouldn’t have to go broke with fear of how do I sustain myself or my
enterprise.
My heart melted when I saw these:
“I had no money. My car was impounded twice. Nothing was
going my way. People saw me as damaged goods. I was feeling lost. Then I would
ask myself, what happened to that 13 year old girl that was playing blue guitar,
if she’s still there? I’m I still that person?” -Katy Perry
I think the lowest point in her life was when she called me,
her 16 year old brother and asked me for money. I was like sorry; I don’t even
have money for myself- Katy’s brother
3
3. You have to move
out of your comfort zone and try out many things in order to achieve your
vision without giving up. What I saw about Katy was that this lady moved out of
her hometown and after trying out different means to achieve her dream, she
traced a successful producer to his home and approached him for business. For
the meeting to be successful, she had the right answers to questions about her
product/service ready always.
In 2001 when Katy was 17 years old she met Glen Ballard (Record
Producer). Glen explained how a girl showed up on his door step and knocked on
his door to tell him how she is a song writer and needed a producer. He asked
her to play him one of her song and he was excited with the song she played and
signed her. Glen explained that people don’t show up on his doorstep everyday
and the last time someone showed up, it was Jalan Morissette. He explained
that, for her to have come to his doorstep with right answers to his questions
and by playing him a mind-blowing song, he immediately confirmed that he would
sign her and he did.
4 4. If you want to be great, create your unique story. You don’t have to be like anyone or who
the people that calls the shot wants you to be.
Angelica Cob-Baehler (Former Columbia Publicist) explained how Columbia record
saw her as a potential to be the next Avril Lavigne or Ashley Simpson or Kelly
Clarkson and were trying to mould her to be like one. However, Katy didn’t
accept and always insisted she wanted to be the first Katy Perry. She eventually
became the first Katy Perry though she had to move to Capitol record.
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| Katy Perry |
55. Be sure you have
a vision and be ready to walk different ways to achieve that vision. Your
first three (3) approaches might not work, but your fourth (4th)approach
might work out if you stick to the vision and you are ready to try out
different approaches. This means you must be flexible. Don’t stick to a
contract, an organization, a partnership, a location, etc that doesn’t work
out.
Katy changed location and she changed from gospel song to pop music.
Angelica Cob-Baehler (Former Columbia Publicist) explained how she was
fascinated after being shown Katy’s video shot by Glen Ballard. Angelica
explained, “When we first signed Katy, she had
been kind of kicking around for a couple of years”. Katy had failed deals with a
Gospel label and Island Def Jam before moving to Columbia Records where she was
hooked up with a producer called The Matrix to look for the best approach to
introduce her to the market.
6 6. You will work very hard before you make it and you will continue to work very hard
and make sacrifices after you made it. Entrepreneurship is just not for a lazy
person.
“People think that she was an overnight success, she really wasn’t.
You know she was working at it for her whole life.”-Katy’s Sister
Katy had been
playing guitar in shows and writing songs since she was 13. Despite all the
challenges, she continued to play guitar and she continued to play shows. In
2011 when she had become a Star, Katy Perry embarked on the largest tour of her
career. It was a year filled with tremendous success and personal heartbreak. She
took her music around the world for 365 days at 2 hours show per night! This
affected her marriage and she was depressed many days but she had to keep going;
she had to satisfy her fans (customers).
7 7. Finally, I will want anyone reading this to know
that having good human relations is one
of the keys to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Katy maintains good
relationship with her family, her team and her fans (customers). Her sister was always following her around and
out of her busy schedule, she was there when her sister wanted to select her
wedding dress.
Members of her crew
explained how fun she was to be with and how she got involved in tasks,
contrary to believe of most people that everything was done for her.
She invited some of
her fans to dance with her on the stage and they couldn’t believe their ears.
It was a great opportunity that gave them happiness they never expected.
BY HANAFI OLANREWAJU RABIU
VISIT WWW.COINKWARA.COM FOR MADE IN KWARA PRODUCTS/SERVICE.
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