Even if you have no clue who Ryuichi Sakamoto is, the lessons learned listed at the end are really universal:

  - being in the middle of things increases your chances for opportunities 
  - everything great that happens in your career starts with someone you know
  - when you hear of an opportunity you want, you have to go for it completely, over-the-top, not casual, and work your ass of to get it
  - the tiniest detail can derail everything

"everything great that happens in your career starts with someone you know"

My day job and night job are both for people I met on a previous job.

I love Derek, but I would not say a costume is a tiny detail. I would say that even a super-important thing can be overlooked - but what are you to gain from that? The most abstract lesson I think you could get from that part would be make sure your gig clothes are covered beforehand.

Man, I wish I could write like him.

Good article.

The only problem I see is that this doesn't necessarily apply to other types of careers, right? I mean if you see a programming job at a company you like, what would you do?

I would imagine that passion would definitely get you any job you want, but passion is a hard thing to keep when all you do is fight day in and out with incompetent people with little compensation(which you accepted in the first place because of your passion). Thoughts?