I can still hear the click-click-click of those keys.  And the only time my thumbs were in better shape was in 1988 when I was playing a lot of Super Contra on Nintendo (up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-select-start).

Blackberry monopolized the market.  It was the generic term for phone/email device.  If you were cool and in business, you had a Blackberry.  Period.

But then the iPhone happened.  And then the Android happened.

And then, Blackberry went bust.

Last week, Blackberry reported a loss of nearly 1 billion buckaroonies (!), announced they were laying off about 40% of their remaining staff, and most significantly, said they were putting their business in reverse . . . and going from public to private.

What happened???  They were on the top of their game!  They were walking around in the best suits and the biggest cars thinking their financial future was guaranteed!  (Sounds kind of like MySpace, doesn’t it?)

Well, they got out-innovated.  And they failed to develop new products to keep their audiences happy (Ironically, Apple may be facing the same issue in the next couple of years, if the iPhone doesn’t keep up with Samsung – I know I just switched to the Galaxy, and I appeared in this!).

I’ve seen the same thing happen to many a Producer.  And I don’t want it to happen to you.  Big hits don’t last forever.  And medium hits don’t last that long at all.  You may be the toast of the town one day (literally), and the next you may be wondering why they won’t give you a table at Bar Centrale.

And that’s why you can’t stop doing what got you to succeed in the first place.  Sure, that Nintendo I wore my thumbs out on way back when is no more . . . but that same company is behind the Wii.

When you’ve got a hit, that’s when you need to double down another one.  Because a Broadway Producer is only as good as his next show.

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