Something I've realized a few months ago about living outside of the rat race and having some kind of a goal you are striving towards. The exact thought was regarding artists and particularly musicians but I guess it could apply to anything that you are passionate about and trying to turn into a living.
If you connect with others like yourself and have a good sense for honest, dedicated people, you will undoubtedly come across some people who succeed. Very likely, some will be friends, and if you have something valuable to offer, others who have succeeded before you will take notice and support you.
The fact is, most people quit pretty early. 90% quit before they graduate university, and other 8 or 9% in the 3-5 years afterwards. If you are still at it, even past 30, that's a form of currency.
Realness is a currency. Dedication is a currency. People respect that.
Obviously you need to put yourself out there and give people a chance to know you, and whether or not you'll get rich is a completely different story, but being able to create a sustainable life doing the things you love is really just about re-arranging the pieces so they fit, eventually, it will work out if you stick it out.
Most people get scared and think some kind of great riches lie in the rat race, or they believe stability is more important, otherwise, they'd make it one day.
They more I go out and socialize, and the more I actually let people in on what I'm doing, the more I realize, I'm only a hairs breadth away from some of my favorite musicians.
People imagine you have to be ultra famous in order to make a living as an artist, but that's really not the case. You need your 1000 hardcore fans and you need to build a system for yourself that delivers what people come to you for.
I know bands who play 4-5 shows a month, and have 20,000 monthly listeners on spotify who do ok for themselves. They put out an album every year or two, and play a small festival or two a month, then they might try to do a month long tour every year. The expenses are high so they don't make tons of money from one thing, but if their fans are really into them they make it work.
A few thousand from ticket sales, a few thousand from merch sales, do that a few times a month and a few people can support a family. They may not be rich, but then they have the option to tour more and try to get bigger if they want. Maybe they build other sources of income which don't only supplement their income but have a mutually beneficial relationship with their music.
One of my favorite guitarists is actually a guitar teacher. He used to play the game of trying to get bigger and bigger but eventually he realized he'd rather build a community and a family and he didn't want to play in front of thousands of people every night because hundreds felt more comfortable to him and that lifestyle was more balanced.
He teaches guitar when he feels like it and because he has fans who would love to learn from him, he can set his schedule however he wants.
I have friend who earns his living making soundtracks for independent movies and theater productions. He saves up money half the year working for people and then he works on his own music the other half of the year.
Another friend works as a producer for other artists. He has periods where he's really busy with others stuff and other times when he's working on his own.
One of my favorite models is the multimedia artist, the one who can make music, write books, produce documentaries, collaborate with others, and dabble in new artforms constantly. Once they have a dedicated fanbase, even of just a few thousand people, they naturally promote their work with their other work. By being connected to so many different scenes, a fan of their writing will often become a fan of their music.
This is the route I'm trying to take.
I've said it before but I want to be able to play the role of Rick Rubin, helping artists level up their ability to express themselves, to find a vision and then plan out how to achieve that vision.
In a way, I've been doing this for @tentententen's hat business. I also help a friend choose a name for their Tattoo business. Recently I've become friends with a few young creative people who are looking for a way to make a living doing the things they love.
I'm not sure when I'll be able to start charging for this, but for now I'm happy to do it for free for friends. And you'll never know, maybe it'll be these friends who help me grow my dedicated following. We can grow together.
If you keep learning and growing, you can't fail forever. Eventually everything starts to come together. The most important thing is to build the life you want to build, or one that you feel good about, I don't think this is something we need to compromise on, although we may have to experiment a whole lot to find what works.
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