RICHARD BRADBURY THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS

Antony was asked by a large salon group in Texas to be the guest of honour at the annual company prize giving. During the evening he was privileged to meet a girl who truly put the good luck, bad luck concept into perspective.

Christine Le is a Vietnamese immigrant who arrived in the USA over 23 years ago. Speaking little or no English she wanted a better life for herself and her family. Life in Vietnam had not been easy for Christine and on arrival she walked the streets of Houston Texas trying to get any work she could. Her goal had always been to become a hair-stylist but she had no formal training and was hardly an obvious candidate to put in front of house.

After months of constant refusals Christine was finally taken on by the ‘Visible Changes’ salon at the lowest level possible. She was sweeping floors and making coffee. Visible Changes are a commission only salon with a strong belief in education so they were extremely supportive with that aspect of her employment even though she was earning pretty much nothing. Christine struggled to make ends meet but after several years, many ups and downs and studying hard to learn good English she finally her way to the main floor and began working as a commission only stylist.

Christine’s upbringing was pretty tough in post war torn Vietnam. She had every right to say that she had been extremely unlucky in her life. She had to move to another country where she couldn’t even speak the language and begin her career with no help and support from any college or family members. Her personal income now regularly exceeds $500,000.00 with bonuses. She still works on the floor cutting hair for the same salon doing an average of 25 clients a day 6 days a week. She is now a property millionaire because she simply decided to ignore every bit of bad luck in her life and concentrated on the good stuff... People see her driving her beautiful Mercedes car and say “It must be easy for her being that lucky?”

Is it talent?

talented”

Is it equipment?

During the early eighties Alan Sugar launched an electronics company called ‘Amstrad’ producing compact HiFi music centres. Amstrad Hi-Fis were, well frankly, pretty awful. They looked awful, sounded awful, and were very cheap in every sense of the word. The brand was so successful that in 1984 Sugar was able to launch the Amstrad CPC home computer. It was one of the first popular, home based, desk top computers of the time and despite its questionable build quality it was a great success. I don’t know anyone that would proudly say they owned an Amstrad because as a piece of equipment they were just not very good.

A few years ago I entered the BIPP national awards. I entered in several categories mainly showing some of the complex commercial assignments that I had been involved with that year. I was informed that I had been shortlisted and was invited to the awards dinner. I am proud to say that I won the fashion category with an image I had shot in rural south west England. I was shown an amazing location that had once been an amusement park and was now over grown. I had my sixteen year old daughter with me and a camera kit but no lighting. We went shopping to buy her an outfit for the shoot and stopped at a local camera store and bought two second hand flash guns and a cheap photo-cell. Total equipment cost was £32.50. This is what I used to light the image. The clothes cost more than the kit.

The music industry is famous for producing some of the most extraordinary artists in history and it is true to say that there is a lot of talent out there responsible for some incredibly creative output. But talent is not the only factor. There are literally thousands of exceptionally talented artists out in the world who never see the lights of the Hollywood Bowl and do not make it in any top 100 record charts.

The Backstreet Boys are arguably the best selling boy band of all time with record sales of over 130 million albums. Now I am not saying that The Backstreet Boys have no talent and I know there are a zillion screaming school girls who would be waiting outside my house every night to lynch me if I dared to suggest such a thing. They can sing, they can dance and their personal grooming is definitely up to scratch but you have to say they are not The Beatles. I find it hard to imagine their musical output being immortalised for future generations along with Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Hendrix or David Bowie.

In 1981 Ultravox’s haunting single ‘Vienna’ was kept off the number 1 spot in UK charts by Joe Dolce’s ‘Shaddap You Face’. Talent does not always count for the most important factor when it comes to success in the music world and the photographic world is no different.

Mr. Sugar is now a multi millionaire and went on to present the TV series ‘The Apprentice’ where he grills and mentors the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. His reputation as a titan of industry is not in question here but his success was certainly not based on the quality of the equipment he produced.

So what is it that all of these examples have in common? Why are The Backstreet Boys famous throughout the world? How did Joe Dolce manage to be number one in UK for 3 weeks keeping ‘Vienna’ in 2nd spot? And did how did Mr. Alan Sugar become Lord Sugar the multimillionaire?

The answer is STRATEGIC MARKETING!