I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it…Microsoft Bill Gates

“The finest dozen computer scientists I know are all musicians” – Steve Jobs.

Steve jobs was an enterprenuer & the founder of Apple. But more than anything, he was an artist. And like every artist, he drew much of his inspiration from other artists.

Jobs was a big fan of Bob Dylan and collected live bootlegs as a teenager and had Dylan albums on his iPod.

Jobs named his company Apple after learning The Beatles were signed Apple Records earlier in their career. In fact, when asked to choose between the Beatles and the Stones, Jobs said, “If the vault was on fire and I could grab only one set of master tapes, I would grab the Beatles.”

Bach was also a favorite. He liked the versions of The Goldberg Variations recorded by pianist Glenn Gould in 1955 and 1981. “I used to like the younger, exuberant one. But now I can see where he was coming from.”

Music executive Jimmy Ienner passed on Madonna noting “I don’t think she is ready yet“. Madonna signed with Sire Records in 1982, and her debut record sold 10 million copies. It was that moment when Jimmy Ienner knew he messed up.

Madonna made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1988 with her third studio album, True Blue. Since then, she has earned multiple appearances, some 20 at least in February 2012, including her insigne record title as the top-selling female recording artist of all time.

Everybody is banging on Taylor Swifts door, including A-list celebrities, hoping they can join the American role model on stage. Steven Tyler, Nelly, Mick Jagger, Keith Urban, Justin Timberlake – you name it! Julia Roberts and Joan Baez even crashed the party and danced along side Swift.

Rihanna is the few who won’t join Swift on stage. “I don’t think our brands are the same: I don’t think they match, I don’t think our audiences are the same,” Rihanna explained to the U.K. magazine. “In my mind she’s a role model, I’m not.”

As to why these A-listers are joining Swift onstage is another question. It’s about a fun time on stage with screaming tweens or making Monday morning news.

Phineas T. Barnum, the 19th century American showman and circus owner famously said “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”. Mick Jagger said “As long as my face is on page one, I don’t care what they say about me on page seventeen.”

Businesses can find success through controversy. And while they receive negative press, the businesses attract enough consumers to suggest that the scorn has provided a form of free advertising.

Many industries survive bad press and below are just two examples.

“Robert Smith & Associates is a digital marketing and public relations firm that was started by its namesake in 2000. Smith characterized the business as one where you can make a lot of money, provided you don’t have a big office with dozens of redundant employees.

He said that many members of the media regard public relations representatives as paid pitchmen who don’t believe in what they sell. But his company is doing just fine anyway, thank you very much. “I am between $500,000 and $1 million, with a few deals in place to hit $2 million in 2014,” he said.”

Houston real estate broker Sissy Lappin says she has sold over half a billion dollars’ worth of property. Despite her success—or perhaps because of it, she said, she has had to fight the preconceived notions that many people harbor about her profession.

I was at a conference last month and a man asked me what I did,” she said. “I told him I was a real estate broker and he remarked, ‘Oh, a bloodsucking vampire.’ I hear negative comments about being a real estate agent all the time, about how over 70 percent of people don’t trust us, and we are ranked above politicians but below bankers in ethics. I have developed a thick skin through the years.” (CNBC)