Stephen Covey wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for people who run companies. I run one too — it just happens to be a record label, a youth program, and a campaign, all wearing the same name. I read the habits the way I read everything: looking for what applies. All seven do. Here is how they look from the Chairman's chair.
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1. Be Proactive. Nobody was coming to sign me, book me, or build this for me. So I stopped waiting for a gatekeeper and became my own: my list, my store, my bookings, my website. Proactive is not a mood. It is the decision that the next move is yours.
2. Begin with the End in Mind. I know exactly what this is building toward — a self-made catalog, a business that pays its own way, young people with a voice, and a run for Chairman of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in 2028. When the end is clear, every day's work either points at it or it does not make the list.
3. Put First Things First. The queue is endless — beats, videos, pitches, paperwork. The discipline is three priorities at a time: finish the chain, bring the money in, build the partnerships. Everything else waits its turn without apology.
4. Think Win-Win. A deal where only I eat is a deal that dies young. The youth sessions give the young people a stage and give me a room that believes in what I am building. When I win contracts, other artists get hired. Win-win is not soft. It is how you build something that lasts.
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. Before I pitch a community program, I listen to what the community is actually asking for. Before I write the song, I listen to the people it is for. Understanding first is why the work lands.
6. Synergize. One artist is a voice. A collective is a movement. The Players Club, the collaborators, the team around the machine — the whole is worth more than any of us alone, and I have watched it multiply in real time.
7. Sharpen the Saw. Recovery taught me this one before the book did. Rest, study, language, the daily work of staying sharp — a dull blade cuts nothing, and a burned-out man builds nothing. Maintenance is not a break from the mission. It is part of it.
Covey called them habits because that is what they are: not inspiration, practice. Done on the days you feel it and the days you do not.
Effectiveness is not a talent. It is a routine.
Make Some Noise. Make a Difference.
— Big Dad The Chairman
