Still learning...!
Reclaim yourself, question everything...
Brian Mulholland’s son… and proud of it
In February of 1994 Depeche Mode were billed to play in South Africa. I was 19 years old and a huge fan. All I wanted was to be a part of the tour in some way. A year before my Dad was the general manager of PA Sound, the sound company owned by Attie and Isa van Wyk of Big Concerts. I begged him to get me a job, I said that I would, “lick the stage clean” if need be.
My Dad made some calls and got me a job as a stage hand (lowest of the low), he asked if I wanted to work with the sound crew, but as both my Dad and my sister were in that field, I opted to join the lighting boys.
Depeche Mode had a light on their rig called an Icon, I fell in love with it and knew that I wanted to make lighting a career. I took every shitty stagehand job I could get, even the less glamourous ones, I also hitch-hicked around the country so I could work on all legs of the Bryan Adams tour.
Sure enough I got noticed and I was offered a full time job at Lighting Unlimited (now Gearhouse), I knew though that the main reason I got the job was that my Dad was the production manager of a lot of big shows that my new boss wanted to work on.
For the first year of my career you would be forgiven for thinking that my first name was Brianmulhollandsson, because that was how I was introduced to everyone, “Hey, I’d like you to meet Brian Mulholland’s son…”
Some would have been bothered, but I was just proud, my dad was a local legend and I was able to use this to kick-start my career. Brilliant. Slowly though, as I progressed, I managed to carve out my own niche, and create my own identity. I fondly remember the day that my Dad told me that he was introduced to someone as Richard Mulholland’s dad. Sure it was an isolated incident, but hey, I’ll take it.
So, why am I telling you this and what’s the relevance today?
Motribe recently reached 1.5 million users, Yesterday I tweeted a link to an interview with Nic and Vince on the success:
This morning I saw the following tweet by Jason from Zoopy:
Jason went on to say, “there’s a major difference in value – anyone can buy millions of users, not every service can attract them virally”.
My point with this post is that it doesn’t actually matter.
Starting out, in a new job, or a new business is hard. You take whatever help you can get, and you do whatever it takes to get traction. If you’re not, your pride will be your downfall. Provided your ethics are intact you just do what needs done. Once you gain traction, that’s when you start carving your niche.
I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved throughout my life, but I’m equally proud that I’m Brian Mulholland’s son. So if anyone ever tells me that that I got there on the back of my Dad’s reputation, I’d answer by quoting Nic and Vince:
Fuck Yeah…!
August 1, 2011 at 11:39 am | No comment