Canadian Musician - January / February 2020 | Page 62
BUSINESS
Steve Kenny is a recovering musician turned artist manager, a transition some refer to as “turning to the dark side.” He
is the co-founder of Traverse Music Management and author of The Ascender, a resource for artists looking to grow their
career in an effective and sustainable way. www.traversemusic.ca/theascender.
By Steve Kenny
Missed Opportunities
FOMO is real, my friends.
The fear of missing out is something
we all deal with on an ongoing basis in
both our personal and professional lives.
Social media inundates us with images
of the success everyone else is enjoying,
and then we get self-conscious about why
we are not achieving these same levels
of success. We get a tiny glimpse into
someone else’s world and suddenly we
compare everything we are doing to that
single image. The result is us asking ques-
tions like: am I missing out on something?
When it comes to our work life, this
manifests in us and leaves us wondering
if we are missing out on an opportuni-
ty. It’s an important question to ask and
it has a very simple answer (with a very
large asterisk). So let’s tackle this one to-
day and move past it: Am I missing out
on opportunities?
The Lead-In
When I’m talking with an artist, this ques-
tion inevitably comes up and usually caus-
es stress on their end. We see the results
and successes others are achieving and
want to emulate that, assuming we are
missing out on some untapped, easy op-
portunity – those 1 million Spotify plays,
the month-long Australian tour, the viral
YouTube video, or the song placement in
a national ad campaign.
But when you see these successes
others are having, you are only getting a
single frame of an entire movie. You don’t
see the hours of work they put in to reach
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this goal, you don’t see all the other things
they sacrificed to achieve this, you don’t
see all the opportunities they passed up
to stay focused on this singular task. We
want to assume it was easy, that they were
lucky, that it was some kind of fluke that
landed them this opportunity. And sure,
that may happen now and then, but for
the most part, this level of achievement
only comes with heaps of hard work and
focus. You’re not doing yourself any fa-
vours thinking it comes easy for everyone
else but is somehow hard for you. In doing
so, you’re only selling yourself short.
The Answer (and Asterisk)
Let’s just cut to the chase and put the
cards on the table. Am I missing out on
opportunities?
Yes, you are. Now get over it.
There are literally hundreds of op-
portunities you could realistically pursue
at this moment. Do you really think you
are going to take all of those projects on
and be successful? Because that will nev-
er happen. The question you should be
asking is: Which opportunities do I want to
pursue? Take control of the situation. Make
the decision on which key projects you
feel will benefit you the most and make
these your purpose. Eliminate all the other
things that don’t drive towards making
good on these opportunities.
To be clear, I’m not saying you should
just stop completing tasks that need to be
done, but don’t do things just for the sake
of doing them and then wonder why you
are not getting results. If you create Face-
book events for all your shows but then
never invite anyone or do anything to cre-
ate engagement around these posts, do
you think you will get any results? Either
stop doing this or create a plan on how
you can effectively use this tool to pro-
mote your shows. By creating a purpose
for your tasks, it helps you decide if it is
worth putting the time into it or not.
The reality is that nobody really posts their
failures – the things they tried and didn’t
succeed at or the months and months of
work and strategic planning it took to get
those 1 million Spotify plays. You need to
remember this when you see a post where
someone is celebrating their success. You
need to give them credit for picking an
opportunity and running with it to that
extent. You need to ask yourself which
opportunities you are chasing with that
same passion.
If you take this approach, you will
no longer need to fear missing oppor-
tunities, because you will have already
decided on which ones you are pursu-
ing, and know in time you will pursue
others. In the long run this will produce
true results and you will naturally create
systems for success. It will also give you
the space to then pursue other oppor-
tunities with the same passion.
So remember: you are missing out on
opportunities, but that’s okay because
you are on your own path, not someone
else’s.