017: Stop Waiting

It’s time to stop waiting. Waiting for that perfect person to come along that is going to take your career to the next level. ‘If only I had a manager’, ‘If only I had the right booking agent’, ‘If only I had the best PR person’. Stop waiting for someone else to make your career happen for you. Nobody is coming to save you, this is all up to you. Can you work harder and better than the rest? Because that is what will make the difference.

Many artists work under the assumption that ‘if you build it, they will come’, and by ‘they’ I mean a team - a group of people to take you to the ‘next level’. There is a belief that eventually things will become easy. But the reality is, that is not going to happen, or at least not in the way you think. I’m not saying you can’t find success and have a great career that you enjoy, and I’m not saying team members won’t come along to share the workload.

I say this as a reminder that with bigger teams comes more logistics and more pressure, as there are more people that count on you. The workload may be shared but it doesn’t get ‘easier’. 

Understanding that things don’t just become easier when you have a team the question remains - can the right person come along and turn your career into what you’ve always wanted it to be? Most definitely - and that person is probably a lot closer than you think. 

What is the career you actually want? Have you defined it? Not the career that you think others want for you, but what you actually want for yourself. Once you figure that out, you’re halfway there. The second step is to take that blueprint and ask the one person who can make it happen if they are ready to do whatever it takes to get there? Doing whatever it takes means letting go of excuses, accepting that it will be hard, and deciding to push forward despite what others may think. If you haven’t figured it out yet, the one person that can come along to turn your career into what you want it to be, is you. Don’t worry, I’m not trying to go all ‘motivational speaker’ here on you. But this is the reality - as a manger, I can’t care about a project more than you, the artist, does.  However, I can care for it as much. The more you bring, the more the team around you will bring, and the more great people you will attract to help you along the way.

You have the power to eliminate the stress and uncertainty you may have around your career. Take what you are truly passionate about and make it your purpose. If nothing else mattered, not presenters, not agents, not managers, not fans, what would YOU do with your career? If you’re not already doing this, you need to refocus, because that is what people truly connect with. When you follow your passion people take notice.

That agent, or manager or opportunity you are waiting and hoping for...it will only come once you have decided to truly follow your passion.  What you’re looking for is not a person, it’s a direction. And that direction is not something you can find outside yourself. When you are truly passionate about what you are doing the stress and uncertainty go away. You will find your flow and make progress despite any setbacks that comes along. If you are without a purpose when uncertainty shows up, you’ll look elsewhere. You will look outside yourself for help and validation for a direction forward. But the answer isn’t elsewhere. 

Now I understand that this is no easy task. It can mean stepping out of your comfort zone and truly putting yourself out there for everyone to see, but that is what great artists do. I also suspect you may already find things hard  - so why go through the struggle trying to follow a direction you think others want of you? Forge your own path, and do the hard work for yourself, not someone else. Stop waiting for permission, stop waiting for the right moment, stop waiting for the right person. Pursue your passion.

~ Steve