Hi, my name is...

So, for the past few weekends, I have been watching far too much MTV. No, not Newlyweds, or 'Til Death do us part, sadly those seasons are over. Lately, however, MTV has turned the reigns over to P. Diddy. Not only has he been pushing (hustlin') his new season of Making the Band, he has also been hosting a variety of shows dedicated to... yes, you guessed it... Bad Boy Records - most notably, his latest CD Bad Boy's 10th Anniversary: The Hits. If you don't know what Bad Boy, Rockafella, or Aftermath Records are - you better check yo' self.

If your organization is looking to emulate best practices, look no further than recent trends in the music industry. Most notably the following timeline...

Suge Knight launches Death Row records, he signs Dr. Dre...

Dr. Dre gets famous, sells millions of albums, becomes the Godfather of Rap...Suge gets a cut of Dre's royalties...

Dr. Dre introduces us to a little guy named... EMINEM...

So this EMINEM guy gets amazingly popular, wins every award going....Dre gets a cut, and Suge gets a cut of Dre's...

EMINEM then finds some bullet riddled rapper named 50-Cent...

Now 50 wins every award going, gets listed on Hottest people alive lists, and makes millions...EMINEM gets a cut, Dre gets a cut from EMINEM, and Suge gets his cut from Dre...

Wouldn't you know it...50 gets a group of guys together... G-Unit...who is on their way up the charts....50 gets some, EMINEM gets some, Dre gets some, and Suge gets some....

The bottom line, each of these artists understands the concept of product life cycles..they are constantly looking for the next big thing, realizing that for the most part - it won't be them.

By the way.. all of this took place over 5 years... 4 product life cycles in 5 years...

Here's the kicker... while all these guys are getting famous, Dre is taking time to re-tool his own image (while making MILLIONS on the backs of EMINEM, and 50), and will launch his next album and be the biggest thing going.. so will EMINEM, so will 50-Cent... and so on.. it's about cycles...

Dre's doing it, Russell Simmons is doing it, Nelly is doing it, and P. Diddy is doing it. Are you?

How long is it taking you.. to change once? Are you looking for the next big thing? It probably won't be something you're doing now...

Will you be smart enough to work on your original proposition while your new breakthrough is raking in millions? Or will you rest on your laurels..?

In rap 'terms' - you better check yo' self before you wreck yo' self...