By Nick Wilson
Joshua Jordison had worked in the music business for more than ten years before he helped start the Human Gathering. Jordison helped make one of California’s biggest street music events happen when he was only 23 years old. The Silver Lake Jubilee was a celebration of the local music scene. It had hundreds of sellers, a lot of up-and-coming bands, and a speech by Eric Garcetti, who would later become Mayor of Los Angeles three years later.
After that festival was a hit, Jordison put together a lot of concerts all over Los Angeles and helped a lot of unknown acts become well-known. It wasn’t an easy trip. Jordison grew up in what he calls a “rough part” of Los Angeles and didn’t have any music business connections.
“In the entertainment business, there are a lot of fake people, so I had to learn how to tell the difference between fakers and real people—people I could build real, long-term relationships with,” Jordison says. This is what he says next: “Before I turned 26, I went from not knowing anyone in the music business to being friends with most of the people who run the business.”
How did he get there? Jordison said it was a mix of his inner drive, his unwavering work ethic, his desire to “show up and be okay with looking stupid,” and other ideas he came up with over time.
The co-founder of The Human Gathering, Joshua Jordison, wrote these five rules to help people avoid fakes and build real relationships:
1. The internal drive is where it all begins.
I believe you should begin by looking deep inside yourself, specifically at the way you think. You need to ask yourself why you are doing what you are doing and find a drive inside you that will move you forward. And that drive has to be a source of energy that never runs out. My main goal was to keep my family safe from the neighbourhood where I grew up. I wasn’t as interested in flashy cars, expensive watches, or the general fame that comes with being great in the music business. I believe that being driven by something bigger helped me be smarter about the people I dated. That’s still with me now. People who aren’t truly motivated will simply drift away from you. It’s an easy and effective way to stay away from fake people.
2. Sometimes, hard work should feel like too much.
The first few months, I went to about 25 shows a week. Most people would probably think that’s a crazy amount of money. And sometimes it did feel like too much. I didn’t give up because I was determined to achieve the goals I set for myself. Every night of the week, Monday through Sunday, I would go to about five different shows. In the end, I also started putting on my own concerts at places like The Standard Hotel, Three Clubs, Spaceland, Bardot, Cinespace, Hemingways, The Satellite, Boarders, The Silver Lake Lounge, Los Globos, The Echo, Room 5, Lot 1 Cafe, The Avalon, Harvard & Stone, Spot 5750, The Bootleg Theatre, and more. A lot of these places are no longer around. I will never forget all the good times, though. Every night, I was either putting on a show or going to a bunch of them, and sometimes I did both. I met a lot of different kinds of people while working in this job. I would meet more people in one week than most people in the music business would meet in a few months. Only real people are willing to work this hard, which is pretty cool. The people you meet are the most genuine ones you could ever meet.
3. Expect to look stupid when you show up.
Coming to an event or party without knowing anyone was something I did a lot of the time. Because no one in my family or group of friends knew anything about the music business, I often didn’t know who the real stars were. I would shake the hands of important people sometimes when I didn’t know who they were. That was fine with me. In simple terms, I never cared if I looked stupid. I thought it would be better to show up and possibly get a chance than not show up at all and know for sure I would miss that chance. My network is so big and strong today, in large part because I’m willing to look stupid and have this attitude. Let someone judge you for this. Real people will think it’s great that you’re ready to just show up and not care if you look stupid.
4. Check out how well other people can deal with disappointment early on.
Now, here’s the thing: all people are flawed. We’ll always let each other down at some point. Before you let someone into your inner circle or give them too much power in your life, you should know how they will behave when you let them down. Because this is true, making a situation happen that disappoints a new person in your life on purpose can often teach you a lot. It does not need to be a big deal. Even something as small and easy as being 15 minutes late to a meeting could be enough. If you’re 15 minutes late for a meeting and the other person gets mad, you know it’s time to end the relationship. As soon as possible in the relationship, get this out of the way. That will save you a lot of trouble and let you know what people really want when you’re interested in dating them for a long time.
5. Get to know someone by giving first.
I’m not telling you to keep score. Simply put, it’s always a good idea to think that you can give more than you receive in relationships. My wheels start to spin every time I meet someone new. I love coming up with new ways to help them. Often, this means putting them in touch with other people who can also help them, or even several people. Before I think about how the person might be able to help me, I have to help them with something first. Some people will say that the way I’m acting makes it possible for other people to take advantage of me. Which is not what I found to be true. Winston Churchill said, “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” This makes me think of another great quote. From what I’ve seen, Winston was right. Also, anyone who takes advantage of you shows right away that they are the type of person you don’t want in your life. From my point of view, you can’t lose with this. Everyone I’ve met who is good at what they do always finds a way to give back. So start by giving.
Jordison says, “These 5 Tenets have helped me build a world-class network of close relationships with some of the most interesting and powerful people in the world.” His words, “And I’m sure they’ll work for anyone who is willing to hire them for long periods of time.”
Jordison has used these ideas to make his company a place where people trust each other and are honest. The Human Gathering keeps getting bigger, with leaders from small businesses to big companies in the Fortune 500 and everywhere in between. “Character and honesty are the most important things to us,” Joyce says. “Everyone who is invited to join our private network has to go through the same application process.” “In today’s world, no one can skip that, no matter what their job is,” he says.