When Michael Caine was just becoming famous, so were his mates.
Other young actors and people he knew.
Nowadays it sounds like name dropping because they’re all famous.
But at the time, they were all just mates: Terence Stamp, David Hemmings, Albert Finney, Tom Courtenay, Sean Connery, Peter O’Toole.
They’d work, and party, and get drunk together, and give each other advice on their careers.
Just the way everyone else does.
One of this group was a hairdresser.
He’d opened a shop in the west end and he was doing okay.
In fact better than okay, he was really fashionable.
He was a cockney called Vidal Sassoon.
He had a different style of cutting hair that didn’t depend on the artificial 1950s look.
Until Sassoon, most hairdressers would cut the hair then spray it into position with tons of hairspray.
Vidal Sassoon did it the other way round.
First he washed and dried the hair and let it hang naturally.
Then he cut it into shape.
So it always fell the way it was cut.
This wasn’t just a totally new way to cut hair, it was a totally new look.
All the Vogue models would want Sassoon to personally cut their hair, people like Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy.
Even top designers, like Mary Quant, and film stars like Mia Farrow.
So Sassoon’s Mayfair salon was doing very well, but despite that Michael Caine felt like giving him some advice.
It was in the early hours of the morning, after an evening’s partying, over a bottle of wine.
We’ve all been there.
Michael Caine said “Look Vidal, you’re doing alright, you’re making a few bob, but you’re not going to get really rich the way you’re going.”
Sassoon asked him what he meant.
Michael Caine said “It’s like my old dad said, the really rich have got something going that makes them money while they’re asleep.
Look at it this way, you’re cutting hair and you’re doing alright, but everyone wants you personally to cut their hair, and you’re only one bloke.
There’s a limit to how many haircuts you can do in a day: six, seven, eight.
You want to set something up that doesn’t depend on you personally cutting hair.
I’m in film: the money keeps rolling in even after I’ve finished acting in that film.
Same with popstars, the money from the records keeps coming in even after they’ve finished singing.
Find a way to get something going in this hairdresser game that keeps working for you even when you’re asleep.”
Vidal Sassoon went quiet.
This was good advice.
He’d never thought of that.
Expand his business beyond the physical limits of what he could actually do himself.
Michael Caine went to bed, but Vidal Sassoon kept thinking.
Within a year, he opened the Sassoon Academy in Mayfair, teaching young professionals how to cut and care for hair.
This established him as thought-leader in the field of beautiful hair.
Then he opened Sassoon Academies all across the USA, Canada and Australia.
He became the most celebrated hairdresser in the world.
Meanwhile he launched a haircare range featuring dozens of different products.
The range with his name on it became massive.
Sassoon was teaching people around to world to cut hair his way.
All these hairdressers would become evangelists, who would only recommend Sassoon haircare products.
He had in fact created closed-loop marketing.
In 1982 sales were $110 million worldwide, the equivalent of half a billion dollars today.
Just by listening to Michael Caine’s old dad’s simple cockney logic.
“Get something going for you that works while you’re asleep.”
Great story Dave! You know, Sassoon Saloon would make a great name for the shop, methinks.
Irfan - 11 March 2013 10:51 am
One of my favourite jokes for you.
A man goes into a hairdressers. He sits in the chair and the hairdresser asks him ‘How would you like your hair cut?” And he replies “In complete and utter silence.”
Jim Powell - 11 March 2013 10:55 am
Dave… a field of beautiful hair. Has the tea lady slipped something more herbal in the big white pot?
Grilla Login - 11 March 2013 11:29 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2BgjH_CtIA
Kev - 11 March 2013 11:34 am
Thanks for the story Dave! This is important information for every entrepreneur. I’ve begun thinking this way as well. Your post also makes me think I need a group of up and comers to hang out with.
Michael Miller - 11 March 2013 10:25 pm
Definitely Michael, that’s very important.
Dave Trott - 12 March 2013 12:02 am
There’s one thing for sure Dave.
Despite all the warnings and reports of bad weather on the way
and PR the excuses on BBC1 this morning.
Sevenoaks council did not gritt the roads last night around Sevenoaks.
It took me and THOUSANDS, not Hundreds of motorists
at least 4 to 5.5 hours to get home, and HUNDREDS were stranded.
Ridiculous.
We are not Russia, covering 12 time zones of ice.
At this moment in political history
we’re just an insignificant Island on the edge of Europe
governed by administrators, accountants, and buffoons
who cannot cope with a little snow.
Cars, tankers, lorries, strewn everywhere,
but the computer says yes, so all must be well.
It seems Kent and Sussex Countty Councils prefer to sleep while we work.
People in offices looking at computers is not reality.
They need to get out and work.
Kev - 12 March 2013 11:56 am
Kev,
They’re not even working while they’re awake.
Dave Trott - 12 March 2013 12:18 pm
Ha! The importance of knowing when to ignore your ego and actually listen to a meaningful advice. Great! Thanks for sharing!
Angelina - 12 March 2013 1:41 pm
@ Kev, it’s not just in Kent and Sussex. Much further, politicians refused to believe that buses and trains are overcrowded. Had to lose a few seats (political, not public transport) before the glorious leaders started doing anything.
@ Dave Trott: seems it’s not so much working but thinking. So, filling in time-sheets = working. Failure to do time-sheets = not working.
Robin. - 12 March 2013 2:14 pm
Here Dave, I was reading ‘Creative Mischief’, which I love, and you convinced me I need to get my hands on a copy of the Art of Advertising by George Lois. But the cheapest copy, even second-hand, I can find is over £150. As I can’t afford that, I thought you might lend me your copy, please? Any chance?
Eoin - 12 March 2013 9:46 pm
Hi Eoin. If you’re in London you can borrow my copy for a while, as long as you promise to bring it back. Drop me a line at antm...@hotmail.com
Ant Melder - 12 March 2013 11:47 pm
Sorry, that email address is antm...@hotmail.com ttedfos children
Ant Melder - 12 March 2013 11:49 pm
Aw cheers Ant. Unfortunately, I’m not in London and it would prob cost another £150 to post. But cheers anyway.
Eoin - 13 March 2013 9:55 am
Eoin,
Several points:
My copy got nicked several years ago.
So did Gordon Smith’s.
The copy I use nowadays is my wife’s.
Having seen what happened to ours, she never lets hers of her possession except to immediate family.
Also this isn’t a book you read once and you’re done.
I’ve been reading it and learning from it for over 20 years.
If you’re planning on a long career in advertising, my advice would be that your career is worth £150.
Also, I just spotted one on eBay for £50 (+p&p):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Art-of-Advertising-George-Lois-on-Mass-Communication-1977-HC-DJ-/221191184455?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item338005a047
Dave Trott - 13 March 2013 10:22 am
Cheers, Dave! Much appreciated. I’m sure it’ll be worth it.
Eoin - 13 March 2013 1:40 pm
Eoin, pick yourself up a copy of George Lois’s ‘Damn Good Advice For People With Talent’ while you’re at it. It’s closer to the fiver price range and seriously good. Did you know George Lois managed to organise a backstage meeting with Bob Dylan to tell him about Rubin Carter being wrongly imprisoned? Pretty good. Then he persuaded Dylan to write a song about it (Hurricane). Even better. Then he got him to put on an awareness benefit at Madison Square Garden. Amazing.
Ant Melder - 13 March 2013 11:16 pm
Ant,
That’s certainly what I learned from Lois’s books.
Not so much about having great ideas but about making things happen.
Chutzpah.
Dave Trott - 14 March 2013 9:52 am
Absolutely Dave. I can’t remember if I read it in a George Lois book or you quoted him in one of your blogs, but I love his dictum – “The true measure of a human being is what he gets done.”
Ant Melder - 14 March 2013 3:49 pm
Now more than ever I think the advertising industry is at a cross-road.
Where it’s headed, who knows.
What I do know is that it’s equipping its people with the nous and intelligence to successfully launch brands, competitively market them in saturated categories, and innovate them into ongoing success.
Advertising agencies need to shift from being a service industry into it’s own self-sustaining incubator. If it doesn’t all their creative talent will eventually leave and start making their own money off their own ideas.
Nikola Spadina - 19 March 2013 3:35 am
http://www.cstthegate.com/davetrott/2013/03/working-while-youre-asleep/
Anca - 22 March 2013 3:57 pm
(I mean this.
)
http://styled-comments.blogspot.ro/2013/03/338.html
Anca - 22 March 2013 3:58 pm
This is an excellent story about creating products that continually work for you.
Lorenzo Caum - 5 May 2013 6:07 am