Jerry Weintraub: How to Use Creativity to Find Career and Business Success
Be the hero
How does a complete nobody get the opportunity to become Elvis Presley’s manager?
Jerry Weintraub was an ordinary man with extraordinary dreams. One of those dreams was to become Elvis’s road manager.
There were a few problems with his goal. One, Elvis already had a manager he’d been working with for years — the Colonel. Two, why would Elvis work with a random Joe Schmo of the street? Three, to be redundant on purpose — he was Elvis freaking Presley — literally the most famous person on the planet at the time.
None of this seemed to occur to Jerry.
He got a hold of the Colonel’s phone number and called him up.
“Who is this?”
“Hi, my name is Jerry Weintraub and I’d like to take Elvis Presley out on tour.”
The Colonel went on to explain that Elvis wouldn’t be going on tour any time soon or perhaps ever again. In his 60s, he’d transitioned to making movies. He also went on to explain that even if he were to go on tour, it wouldn’t be with some random guy.
This didn’t seem to shake Jerry at all. He called the next day with the same result. He also called the day after, and the next day, and the next…
