All Jonny Podell wanted was to get girls.
But he needed money to take them out, so he came up with a plan.
When The Beatles first came to New York, he bought six tickets and planned to scalp them.
He was working at a local community dance mixer at the time and figured he’d find buyers there.
But the guy who ran the mixer saw him pitching his tickets there and put a stop to it.
“You can’t do that here,” he said. “You’re a real wiseguy. I could use a wiseguy like you in my organization. Why don’t you be an agent?”
Jonny had no idea what an agent was.
The guy explained to Jonny how booking bands works and offered Jonny 10% of any bookings he got.
He took the gig.
A year later he got his first booking.
Shortly after that, Jonny got a call from another agent who threatened him and ordered Jonny to stay out of his territory.
Jonny asked where his territory was and the agent replied, “Everywhere.”
A couple months later, that agent got a job at a bigger, “real” agency and offered Jonny a job.
He took it, was made an agent with no training, and a few months later the guy who hired him quit.
Suddenly, Jonny inherited all the clients and was basically running an agency despite having no idea what he was doing.
It took him six months to get a booking for a client.
But he learned and went on to become one of the most successful music agents of all time, representing acts like The Allman Brothers, Alice Cooper, and Cyndi Lauper.
It’s a cool story that illustrates several of my core beliefs:
1. You have no idea what going after what you want may lead to.
If he doesn’t try to scalp Beatles tickets, his whole life likely turns out different.
2. You don’t have to know how to do something to start doing it.
Having no idea what an agent was before taking a job as one didn’t prevent him from ultimately succeeding.
3. When you do what you want, you get what you need.
It’s magic.
It’s a shame more people aren’t willing to go after what they want so they’ll never know.
I learned about this story from Jonny’s appearance on the Bob Lefsetz podcast.
RELATED:
• What Cameron Crowe’s Origin Story Teaches About Getting Your Dream Job