The Science of Stardom - Part II

Part Two - The Story of Justin Bieber
by Monroe Mann
(c) 2011 by Monroe Mann

First off, if you have not yet seen the Justin Bieber movie, “Never Say Never”… go see it. 

Whether you like Bieber or not is irrelevant—I want you to watch it for the lessons you will learn. 

I am not so much a fan of Justin Bieber as I am now a huge fan of his story.  Further, after you watch the movie, my article here will make a lot more sense.

For those who have not seen the film, his story is relatively simple on its face: Justin Bieber was born in Canada.  At a very young age (2 or 3), Justin showed an amazing talent for rhythm and playing the drums. 

Shortly thereafter, he began to play guitar and sing and years later, he entered a talent show. 

What happened next is the chain of events that led to his stardom:

A) His mom recorded each of Justin’s performances singing each of the songs during the multi-day competition (and other videos) and posted them all on YouTube.

B) He received a huge amount of viewership hits on YouTube from fans. 

C) A new talent manager from Atlanta, GA named Scooter Braun found the videos on YouTube in 2008 while searching for another artist and flew Justin and his mom down to GA.

D) Scooter introduced Justin to the rock star/R&B musician Usher.

E) Usher introduced Justin to the famed record producer L.A. Reid.

F) L.A. Reid ultimately secured Justin Bieber’s signing to Island Records in 2009.

G) Bieber sold out Madison Square Garden about one year later, with no opening act, in less than 15 seconds.

Yes, the above story is simplified, but it is adequately inclusive for the purposes of this article.

All I want you to do for the moment is reread that chain of events.  Try to formulate in your own head what happened.  How could everything have happened so quickly, and apparently so seamlessly?

Think about how amazing it is for an artist to sign to a record label one year as a total unknown, and then to sell out Madison Square Garden (20,000 capacity, plus or minus) one year later.  In just 15 seconds!  THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN PEOPLE! 

Well, clearly, it can happen.  And does happen.  Because it did happen.

And if you follow what I am about to share with you in part III (coming up soon), you can put your best foot forward to try and mimic what happened with Bieber… with your own career.  Stay tuned!  This adventure is just getting started.