Finding people you can work with, and most importantly... simply get along with... is probably the hardest part of the whole thing. I've seen bands that were otherwise very talented, but imploded due to personality issues. Unfortunately, I think a lot of it is luck. And unlike many people, I actually DON'T believe in the perfect democracy. Having members that are perfectly equal has worked in very rare cases. But it usually doesn't. What usually works is finding one or two people that are the most talented, and then coming to some sort of understanding where they won't abuse their power, but in the end have final say. Otherwise, what you get are endless arguments that go nowhere. There's always going to be more than one good idea. But in the end, someone has to pick one and be done with it. So you are either a chief or an indian. If you can't live with being an indian, then go off and run your own program. But too many great bands have been destroyed, because everybody thought they were perfectly equal. Example: The Police... Clearly Sting was the most talented. But the others couldn't deal with that. They should have just shut up and enjoyed their success, but they couldn't do it.
And if by your mid 20's you haven't found anybody you can work with... Give up and just do everything yourself.
