Jun 24 2005
Never Forget
On the road, so gotta make this a quickie.
Over and over I’ve mentioned passion being a requisite for success in the music biz. I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately – how the successes I have accomplished have usually generated from someone in a hiring position seeing a drive and fire in me that assured them I could handle the job. I never tire of hearing how my proposal won the bid due to the sheer passion I displayed in the meeting.
Accomplishments say a lot about your abilities, but it can be difficult to get people to give you a chance to prove yourself without prior accomplishments. The ol’ chicken and egg. So how do you get the gigs that allow you to rack up accomplishments? Show that you love what you do and cannot get enough; that you’d be doing this for a hobby if it wasn’t your job; that you lie awake at night thinking of ways to (market | promote | sell | play | etc) better than you currently do.
Passion + Hard Work = Success
Simple as that.
That’s so true in every line of work! Passion and hard work, and I believe that means passion for everything involved, including (or maybe especially) the unglamorous or pain in the neck bits. I am reminded of a talented, responsible and highly organized high school friend who thought she’d like to become a music teacher. Off she went to college, where in short order she discovered that she loved music but the kids drove her insane. If you want a career in something, you have to love all of it, the field, the day to day stuff and all the people involved. How many music execs actually truly and honestly really LIKE musicians and their artistic concerns these days, anyway?