At 7:29: “Name your price at the beginning. If it [achieving fame] ever gets more expensive than the price you name, get out of there.”

Be yourself and you naturally attract like-minded individuals.

Fair weather friends and attention is transient and does not build great long term foundations.

That said, this is the long term plan, not the “Be Rich and Famous This Week” plan. If you want short term results, go for a short term play, but I’ll bet those folks will end up reinventing everything again from scratch at some point.

And for what it’s worth, the price associated with fame doesn’t always seem worth it, at least to me.

This could mean being an artist in the traditional sense but I really mean, no matter what you are doing, be an artist.

In my definition, a true artist does what he/she does without concern for what others think (I guess that’s kind of like Julien says, “screw it”. If they are successful in the money or fame sense, they are fine with that. If they are not, fine with that, too.

This is about life, not just work. Unless you are at the point where you don’t know how to have food to eat or shelter over your head, then BE AN ARTIST.

Being an artist is my goal, my religion, even if I don’t always attain it.

It’s a good lesson for life, too: Be who you are, but pay enough attention to the patterns around you to figure out when–and how–to hang back, and when to stand out. (But the smartest chameleons learn to blend in first….)

Here’s why.

We crave novelty. New foods. New music. New books. Sure, we head back to some old favorites once in a while, but still, I could manage to not ever hear Led Zeppelin ever again, and I’d be ok with that.

Side note: I had a long conversation with my father about the music business this afternoon. Two things seem clear: 1. the people running the music business don’t actually listen to music, and 2. they have contempt for their customers.

So there is opportunity.

Now, how to crack it…

Have fun making people feel good.

That’s it. That’s the entire high level strategy. You won’t need to “break in” to cliques. A clique will form around you.

When I was in college there was no such thing as FaceBook or Twitter, and for that I will be eternally grateful for a variety of reasons. Regarding these two sites, it seems like you have to “be on it” or “be left out”, but to what extent should you participate? When does receiving and providing real value cross over into flat-out narcissism and time-wasting? And when does the value of what can be viewed on a tiny screen outweigh all of the wonderful things you can see by simply lifting your head and looking around?

I don’t know. But it’s a trade-off I struggle with every day. And it’s a hard choice to make; unlike the “Should I watch more reality TV?” decision.

My theory is that everyone is too busy trying to impress everyone else, so no one is actually paying attention to anyone else. If people stop paying attention to the self-absorbed herds and start trying to impress and challenge ourselves, maybe we’d actually achieve something worthy of notice.

If our efforts go unnoticed, it’s their loss, not ours.

Oh, and I do prefer people who hang out alone to those who are popular. The loners tend to be much more interesting and funny.

Some of my most enjoyable business trips are the ones that I go on alone and am forced to find new and interesting places to eat/visit. One of my favourite moments from a NY trip is not the trip to the Guggenheim or the walk through Central Park, but rather the pizza I shared with a guy who was convinced that he was God incarnate. Not the cool thing to do – eating with a bun discussing religion – but ultimately more memorable.

Getting to know yourself helps networking because you’re selling them a product you are more intimately aware of. It makes the interaction more real/genuine/two way … as long as you can find other people that really know themselves or at the very least, want to.

In the end though it comes down to your definition of ‘making it’ If success is making it any cost including yourself then yeah – fake it till the cows come home. But if it is staying true to yourself and being successful on your own merit then stick with the ‘screw it’ attitude and be yourself. There’s bound to be at least another 1,000,000 people out there with the same attitude who will be seeking a network of like minds. Find them and make something real.

There will be those who continue to spam, pester, and annoy everyone and anyone trying to get noticed and there will be those who try to add value to just the right people and ‘have it easy’.

I think it is impossible to educate everyone to appreciate the benefits of the latter approach.