Give Credit, Don't Take It

Always seek to give credit, but never to take it.

Charlie Puth is has written mega pop hits, with multiple billion-streamers. He's worked with superstars of the music industry, and is known as a musician’s musician. He’s a self-proclaimed music nerd. He can sing, he can play, he has perfect pitch. He can write. He can perform.

He’s got every reason to toot his own horn, tout his own skills.

In fact, it was these skills that led ​Studio.com​ to create a popular online class on pop production featuring Puth.

But in the course, where Puth is supposed to be the main attraction, the Master, he instead repeatedly gives credit away to others. He names all of the great musicians and producers who taught him.

In fact he did this so much that ​Studio.com​ made not ​one​ but ​two​ promo videos for the class that focus on what Puth has learned from his mentors.

“Benny Blanco always told me this…”

”Skrillex always told me to use this plugin.”

“Another trick I learned from Max [Martin]. I just learned all my tricks from Max.”

“Babyface always told me to do this”

“My friend Ross Golan told me this. He's a really good songwriter…”

“Julian Benetta did that on some early One Direction stuff…”

“Louis Bell always told me to, like, cut it off at the end where it sounds, like, unexpected.”

“Ryan Tedder always told me to do that…”

“Pharrell always told me to do this. You want to go outside your comfort zone.”

There’s a magnificent section at the beginning of Marcus Aurelius’s ​Medit in which he catalogs what he learned and from whom. It’s an exercise that we talked about a while ago ​in this newsletter​.

From his grandfather Verus, “Character and self control.” From his mother, “her inability not only to do wrong but even to conceive of doing it.” From his adoptive father and empirical predecessor Antoninus Pius, “Compassion. Unwavering adherence to decisions, once he’d reached them. Indifference to superficial honors. Hard work. Persistence.”

It would be easy to just see Puth’s habit as a name-dropping exercise—just a way for Puth to aggrandize himself through his connections.

But that would be missing a deeper point, which is that Puth has clearly thought through the lessons he’s learned from those great collaborators and mentors.

How many lessons do you have on the tip of your tongue, complete with an acknowledgement of who you learned them from?

So forget taking credit for yourself. Instead, always seek to give credit to the mentors, peers, collaborators, and students whom you have learned from.

Cultivate a list of lessons learned. Add to it. Share the lessons with others, and thank the ones who taught you.

In so doing, you honor them and yourself.