#22 Van Halen's Secret 🎸

The M&M Hack

In the entertainment industry, musicians and actors are known for making ridiculous requests in their performance contracts.

In the 1980s, American rock band Van Halen became notorious for including "The M&M Clause" in their list of demands.

Photo: Fin Costello / Redferns via Getty Images

"Article 126: There will be no brown M&M's in the backstage area, upon pain of forfeiture of the show, with full compensation."

For years people laughed off this demand. They saw it as a classic example of eccentric superstar divas or obnoxious superstition.

But David Lee Roth, the lead singer of the band, later disclosed the actual reasoning behind their "ridiculous" request.

Turns out it was a test.

At the time, Van Halen's tours were massive, elaborate productions with hundreds of lights, heavy equipment and very complicated setup designs and installations.

The band knew that if their instructions were not followed correctly, it could lead to serious safety issues that could ruin their show or even put someone's life at risk.

So, they buried the "The M&M Clause" in the contract and in the middle of technical specifications to test the promoter's attention to detail.

Part of a rider from Van Halen's 1982 world tour. via thesmokinggun.com

When they arrived at a new venue, they checked the M&M bowl. If they saw brown ones, they knew the promoters had not read the contract carefully. It meant that they needed to double-check the entire production. If it was too difficult to fix they would cancel the entire show.

The Takeaway:

Don't underestimate the power details. They can make or break you.

Something that takes years to build could collapse in seconds if you ignore the little things.

Find your system.

The problem is, life is complicated.

It's not always feasible to oversee every single detail. But, like Van Halen, we can identify important indicators that can give us an idea of how we are doing.

How many times a week are you exercising or ordering takeout?

What is the employee turnover of your company? 

Develop your own “M&M's system” to keep track of the details matter.

What M&Ms do you need to watchout for?

I would love to hear from you. Let me know what you think.

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Think small, act big!

María Albert

For more, you can follow me here @maria_albert13.

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