Putting your name on it

I made hundreds of mistakes running my first company. I wonder if one was worse than all the others put together.

I kept my name off everything.

It was a talent agency - we booked DJs and bands for their gigs around the world. Every agent had their own roster, a few artists were shared, and outside my own direct clients none of it had my name attached.

I told myself a bunch of stories why: I was too busy; I didn't have the gravitas for it; it would be tiring and overwhelming; and so on.

Which was, in hindsight, extremely stupid.

Artists who were on the cusp of leaving had no idea who I was, so there was no call I could usefully make. Dropping someone (a horrible job) always fell to one agent on their own - or me showing up and it looking disingenuous.

And when an agent left, the roster invariably went with them. I didn't stand a chance of rescuing it because nobody on it really knew me. That was the worse one. In fact, it nearly killed the company - twice.

Meanwhile someone else in the same game was putting their name on everything, co-booking tons of acts, naming the company after themselves.

For many reasons, they did a great deal better than I did, but putting their name on things can't have hurt.

You may have your own version of this.

Sometimes we don't feel the cost of staying in the background until we need someone to know who we are.