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Needful Things You can't always get what you want . . . or can you?

By Marc Diener

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Because I'm an occasional rock 'n' roll lawyer,aspiring pop idols sometimes seek me out. Usually the dealsthey're offered are awful. Yet one desperate singer showed me acontract that promised to put him not in the "surf music"but the "serf music" genre--the terms would havemade a feudal overlord blush. I was frank with my prospectiveclient: "It is mathematically impossible for you to make onenickel on this deal. Why bother?"

"But you don't understand," he pleaded. "Ijust gotta get a record deal!"