Creativity emerged as an important force in his life when Goldman was still a teenager. He started playing drums in a band with a friend who wrote his own songs, and by the time he was 18, Goldman was also composing music. At about the same time he adopted a new lifestyle that included vegetarianism and yoga and began expanding his literary horizons, reading the works of such authors as Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Herman Hesse and Ayn Rand.

He continued his involvement with music and an alternative lifestyle through college, graduating with a psychology degree from C.W. Post College in.1975. He toured as the drummer with another band for awhile, but soon fell into a series of jobs that, he says, never really excited him.

"First I was selling institutional frozen foods, working 14 hours a day. I left that after just 10 months," he relates. "Then I went into my father's appliance business, working in the audio department of his New York City store." With the economy heading into recession in the late 1970s and his father's business in a precarious position, Goldman went to work in the garment district at a company owned by a family friend and found that equally unfulfilling.

Fate intervened at that point, and Paul Margolies-a master photographer who would become Goldman's close friend and creative mentor-offered him a phone, a desk and a meager salary to begin representing his photography career. "It may not have sounded like much of an opportunity to the average person trying to get started in the business world, but I knew it was what I had been looking for," Goldman says. "After touring with a great band, 'straight' jobs in the world of sales just didn't excite me or get my creative juices flowing, and I missed that."

Goldman paid close attention to finances, always on the lookout for opportunities.

Goldman had developed some basic sales skills in his previous jobs, but Margolies would be his guide in this new world of creative artists. "He taught me how to put together a strong presentation, what to say, how to act, where to go, even how to dress," he recalls. Eventually, Goldman began to develop his own representation style, adding creative elements, throwing parties and networking extensively.

At the same time, he realized that some of the more pragmatic skills he developed in his previous jobs would be useful in his new career. Goldman paid close attention to finances, was always on the lookout for free or low-cost public relations and advertising opportunities and took a go-slow approach to expansion. He added a phone line here, an upgraded copy machine there. He committed to working long hours, educating himself about the business through trade shows and journals and networking to make new contacts.

KEY LESSON

Goldman learned an important lesson that would serve him well throughout his career: All aspects of life, both personal and professional, are potential learning experiences. Success, even in a creative business, requires a combination of skills.

Goldman describes the growth of his business as "organic," in that he never had a five-year plan or a specific goal he was trying to reach, other than to achieve financial security and a lifestyle that was not overly burdensome or stressful. He put in long hours for the first four or five years, representing photographers exclusively. He remembers that period as being extremely difficult.

"I knew very little about the world of photography, let alone how to sell it," he admits. "It's not selling widgets, where you have a set price, a delivery process, a weight per item and a rebate schedule. This was a completely different world of selling."

Goldman compares it to representing professional athletes $25,000 a day. While the rate often depends on the photographer's experience and reputation, sometimes it just comes down to whom one knows or even "dumb luck," he says.

Curiosity and experimentation go had in had and can open doors in business.

"The people I was selling to were very creative and sometimes eccentric. Hence, I was able to use my background as a musician and a composer to relate in a very creative way to the people I was meeting," he explains. "There was no need to play golf or join the local country club to increase my level of success. I found that the more I focused on simply getting to know people and letting them know who I was, the more I didn't have to sell."

Goldman believes that creative people are intrinsically curious, and that curiosity and experimentation go hand in hand. That combination could open important doors.

"Personally, I'm curious about things and people I can't easily figure out," he says. Great musicians, magicians, illusionists, record-holders of any kind; how bridges, tunnels and dams are built; how great inventions came to be; the role of diet as a precursor of disease or health - all these things and more perked Goldman's curiosity in a major way, and he shared that curiosity with his clients.

Once the creative people Goldman was targeting with his business started to realize that he, too, was living a very creative life, he began to win their trust and develop long-lasting relationships. Essentially, he says, the David Goldman Agency was built one artist at a time, one loyal client at a time.

As Goldman discovered, identifying with your target customer and effectively communicating that identification is important in any business.

TAKING CHANCES

Goldman's own tendency toward experimentation manifested itself in his business when, after five years of representing only photographers, he contracted to represent his first artist, Norm Bendell. With very limited funds to launch the effort, he and Bendell created a small promotional campaign targeting their core audience of art directors and designers.