There’s No Magic Formula
When it comes to success, sorry folks, but there’s no magic formula that will make all
your hopes and dreams come true. It’s going to take a clearly focused plan, sensible,
achievable goals, hard work and a bit of serendipity tossed in for good measure.
The place to start is doing a self-assessment. The typical stumbling block with a self-
assessment is being honest. That doesn’t mean we set out to blatantly lie to ourselves.
Odds are, that annoying little voice in the back of our head will know and call us on the
carpet. It simply means that what’s in our mind’s eye doesn’t quite align with reality. In
many areas of our life, the way we see and understand things about ourselves isn’t the
way those traits really are in actuality. It’s normal human behavior. We tend to be too
close to ourselves to see some things clearly, while others do. So, when doing a self-as-
sessment, it’s important to include others. They should be people who know you well and
will give an honest opinion. It’s been said that a good friend will tell you when you’re
awesome. A great friend will tell you when you’re being an idiot. The hard truth is that it’s
much better to realize, early on, that you’re not cut out to be a professional musician,
rather than sink a ton of time, effort and money into something that will never work out
the way you hope.
Here are a few questions, albeit not exhaustive by any means, to help get you started:
- Do people that know you believe you are well-suited to being a professional musician?
- Do you consider yourself a self-starter?
- Do you consider yourself naturally talented?