[Glen Ballard: Be Prepared the Key to Success]
The best advice I have is always prepare yourself with a skill set that you can take into this big arena that we call the entertainment business. The more you have something demonstrable that you can do, whether it is you've become a master of Pro Tools, whether you learned how to read music and write the charts, whether you learned how to play the guitar, whether you learned how to program synthesizers, work hard on it. I mean, preparation is the key.

If you really acquire a skill set, then it really gives you a certain – that's your key to get in is really coming in and saying, "I'm really good at this. I can really play." And being able to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. I say if you get really good at what you do, you will have a career. Because that's in short supply. I mean, it's something that I don't think I can overemphasize is that your lucky breaks will come if you've got something that you're prepared for. I mean, if you prepared for that break, that's it. And so to me, it's all about really working hard to get good at whatever it is that you've decided you wanna do.