A Man Without A Plan: Behind the Music with Scott Vener

Despite leaving out the conventional experience in his resume, Scott Vener received the opportunity to oversee the musical facet of the highly successful TV show Entourage. His responsibility encompassed choosing unknown music to reflect the show’s youthful energy and tone. Thus, he created a name for himself within the industry and became known for discovering new music. After also overseeing the music part on HBO’s How to Make It in America, he became an HBO music supervisor. What many may consider as a dream job, this profession entails an extensive work ethic and intuition. American Dreaming Magazine dedicates its May 2012 edition to the inner workings of today’s entertainment industry. On this note, the publication highlights Vener’s background and his comeup in the industry. Read an excerpt of the editorial below whereas the full article will be purchased in the May issue of American Dreaming Magazine which can be purchased here.

One thing Scott has learned to rely on is his intuition. Malcolm Gladwell sums up this concept
which he calls “thin-slicing” in his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. It’s the
idea that spontaneous decisions are often as good as–or even better than–carefully planned
and considered ones. And it’s this mindset that has put Vener in a position to take his career to
amazing places without a five-year plan, internships or years of grunt work.

“The older I’ve gotten, the more I trust and depend on it,” Scott says of his intuitive nature. “To
me, intuition is nothing more than math. It’s not like some nostradamus, seeing into the future
trick. It’s that moment when your subconscious calculator inside, runs all the empirical data that
you have and calculates the sum total of what your personal truth is. It’s the fastest calculator in
the world–it’s like sight, smell, love, pain, hate; everything all scrunched together and you just
have to come up with your best answer. And you should always trust it. You should never regret
the decision you made.”