I didn't read it that way. It wasn't just an email and a phone call, he was sending songs for two years. His #2 is "reach out and say hello", but #1 (more important than 2) is "create great stuff".
I too first skimmed it cynically, my natural reaction to any self-help/motivation post. A few of his lines, read alone, do sound ridiculous. "Simply contacting a stranger.." "Just like that, I was in." "All because I bought pizza for a stranger." "Soon after arriving in New York, ... opportunities were everywhere." But I read these lines as obvious hyperbole, used for dramatic effect.
Even though he glosses over a lot of subtleties (its a blog post), I found it rather honest. Yup, it is all about who you know, and it only takes one connection. But there's a more useful truth embedded in the premise, easily overlooked in all the self-glamorizing (again with the dramatic effect): "Create great stuff... [so they can] see something done."
I too first skimmed it cynically, my natural reaction to any self-help/motivation post. A few of his lines, read alone, do sound ridiculous. "Simply contacting a stranger.." "Just like that, I was in." "All because I bought pizza for a stranger." "Soon after arriving in New York, ... opportunities were everywhere." But I read these lines as obvious hyperbole, used for dramatic effect.
Even though he glosses over a lot of subtleties (its a blog post), I found it rather honest. Yup, it is all about who you know, and it only takes one connection. But there's a more useful truth embedded in the premise, easily overlooked in all the self-glamorizing (again with the dramatic effect): "Create great stuff... [so they can] see something done."