This as-told-to essay relies on a dialog with David Schulhof, the 55-year-old founder and CEO of MUSQ World Music Trade ETF primarily based in New York Metropolis. It has been edited for size and readability.
I grew up with Clive. I went to high school along with his children, and my dad was truly employed by him for a job early in his profession. I will all the time bear in mind he had this wonderful condo on the West Facet that we might go to yearly to observe the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from.
After I was rising up, Clive all the time shared wonderful tales concerning the artists he labored with, and it actually impressed me to affix the trade. Though I by no means labored with him immediately at file labels, I discovered from him all alongside the way in which.
A couple of decade in the past, he reached out to me to co-produce a documentary about his life, “The Soundtrack of Our Lives.” The movie is now on Netflix.
Clive taught me that so long as you’ve drive, style, and work ethic, you possibly can work and succeed till the day you die. In his case, 94 years, Clive, God relaxation his soul, had essentially the most unimaginable career in music from the day he was employed at Columbia Information (a subsidiary of CBS) to the day he died.
Clive taught me classes that helped me within the music trade
I all the time admired that Clive was an actual music man. Not solely did he choose wonderful artists to work with, whether or not it was Carlos Santana or Whitney Houston, however he additionally knew easy methods to choose the best materials to get every artist successful.
After I began a personal equity-backed music publishing firm, I made it a precedence to have nice songs. Clive taught me that.
I will always remember, he additionally informed me, “Having successful music is sort of a three-legged stool. You want the music, the efficiency, and the manufacturing. You possibly can’t miss something there.” I’ve carried that into the entire corporations I’ve labored for and in my entrepreneurial career within the music trade.
His consideration to element was out of this world
Working carefully with Clive on his documentary confirmed me simply how super his work ethic was.
He actually needed to seize the total historical past of each artist, and simply once we thought we have been achieved protecting a topic, he’d go into a lot additional element. I believe a part of his consideration to element needed to do with the truth that he was a lawyer by coaching.
That stage of element, whether or not it was being a lawyer, writer, or documentarian, was a extremely inspiring high quality that got here throughout throughout my time rising up with him and dealing with him on the film.
I bought to see Clive a number of weeks in the past
On Might 8, I hosted the Amplify Music Funding Summit, and I had Clive give one of many keynote speeches. He informed all kinds of humorous tales and was interviewed by his son, and it was fantastic.
It is actually nice to listen to Clive converse as a result of he sounded and dressed like a really educated man from Europe, however then his Brooklyn-isms would come out, and also you’d understand he is only a man from the road who actually succeeded with arduous work.
Each of his mother and father died very younger; he bought via faculty and law school, labored his means up via arduous work, and have become an incredible household and enterprise man. Household was all the pieces to him. He was as profitable as a household man as he was a music government.
One in all my standout moments with him was his 2012 pre-Grammy occasion
After all, Clive additionally threw wonderful events. I’ve by no means seen a room full of so many profitable celebrities and artists directly. I additionally witnessed some very tough issues at them.
One in all his pre-Grammy events occurred on the day that Whitney Houston died, and moderately than canceling the occasion, Clive carried on the present.
I could not even imagine what I used to be seeing: the way in which Clive introduced collectively a lot of the music trade on an evening when so many individuals have been weeping and in shock. It’s going to go down as one of many best, most lovely but traumatic indicators of resilience in life.
Clive’s legacy will dwell on
There isn’t any different government I’ve labored with who’s touched almost 70 years of music. His classes to me have been to belief my intestine, use my style, use my ears, work with nice individuals, and get nice materials.
My coronary heart goes out to Clive’s household. He was a really particular man, and his legacy, music, and brilliance will dwell on for generations. What he did within the music trade cannot be achieved in 10 to fifteen years. He did this over a lifetime, and it is super. I am simply fortunate to be a small a part of it.
What’s the most effective profession lesson you’ve got discovered from a mentor? Contact this reporter at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com to share your story.
