I have had to learn over the years that no one is going to help make or break your career if you first don’t do it yourself. Think about all of the high school graduates who completed their studies this past summer. How many of those individuals had an action plan? How many got mom or dad to complete their college application or gave them their first job? How many do you think really had a good idea of what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives? They say that when you but your own sweat and tears into a project or activity, no matter the outcome, you have a sense of accomplishment no matter what it is. I will admit that going to college for me was a requirement but I definitely had to do most everything myself. I think that may have taught me some level of ownership and gave me the ability to never settle for letting someone else do what I needed to accomplish. To this day I have a “will try it” determination coupled with the proverbial “yes I can” attitude.
I think that many of us in the music industry know how to do so many things on our own but feel the brunt of the steel doors and glass ceilings this and many professional industries have in place. I recently viewed a webinar sent to me from a writer who had just completed his first novel. He was saddened to find out that he had to connect with certain “powerful people” in order to get his book noticed or reviewed by anyone. Like in most if not all aspects of entertaining endeavors, to be able to bring these treasures to the public and get paid for it but somewhere along the way creative souls fail to realize if they could first develop what I like to call “serial fans” they would not have to worry about impressing anyone but those fans. Let’s face it, they are who matter in the end.
