The Main Thing That Determines If Your Music Career Will Be A Success
By T . Hess
What is the fundamental factor that determines whether you will succeed in the music business or fail ?
The answer is : Your mindset . The level of success you experience in your music career is perfectly analogous to the choices you make and the actions you ' ve taken up to this point . Both of these things are a result of the mindset you have .
Massively successful musicians in the music business are not born with superior musical talent or more potential than other musicians . They just think with an entirely different mindset than everyone else , which causes them to take different actions and get entirely different results .
When you possess a positive and self-motivating mindset , you will make decisions that lead to actions ( for the majority of the time ) that produce tons of success for your music career . If you ' re not sure how to build your music career , having a positive mindset will cause you to ask all the correct questions and seek answers in all the right places .
When you have an average mindset , you may achieve a little bit of success in the music industry , but chances are , you will not see long-term sustainable success .
When you have a negative mindset , you simply will not make it anywhere in the music industry ... regardless of what positive things are going on for you currently .
Think about three musicians who are all in equal standing in their music careers , facing three common music industry situations ( discussed in a moment ). These musicians are exactly the same in every possible way except for one thing : their mindset . The first musician has a negative mindset . The next has an average mindset . Finally , musician three has an empowering mindset .
Read through these examples to understand how big of a difference your mindset can make for the results you get in your music career :
Music Industry Challenge One : Building A Financially Stable Music Career Musician # 1 thinks : " First I need to have a backup plan in case my music career doesn ' t pan out ." This mindset is fundamentally rooted in a fear of failure , rather than a desire to succeed . In most cases , musicians who think like this choose to get a job that is entirely unrelated to music . Then , they eventually become trapped in their day job . In the end , the fear they have takes them further away from achieving their musical goals . Musician # 2 thinks : " I don ' t want to distract myself from my music career by having a backup plan . I will only focus on music until I ' ve achieved my goals . I won ' t do anything else that could get in the way of my musical goals ."
This approach drastically increases your chances of making it in music . When all that is left is either success or failure , choosing success is the best choice for achieving what you want . However , this approach is also very black and white ... which leads to unnecessary risk . Although it increases your chances of achieving your goals , it does almost nothing to eliminate your chances of failure . If you ignore any short-term financial responsibilities or deadlines , you will struggle to build a successful career in music . Tons of musicians have this mindset and give up ... never realizing their musical dreams . Musician # 3 thinks : " I need to build my music career without struggling financially . I must earn money using an approach that : 1 . Allows a lot of freedom to work on my music , 2 . Works hand-inhand with my long-term musical goals , 3 . Doesn ' t force me to work 40 + hours every week . By doing this I can pursue my musical goals without any financial struggle or hardship ."
Understanding how to grow your music career in this manner is simple ( you can find out how by getting music career mentoring ). The difficult part is staying away from the two previously mentioned mindsets .
Before you continue reading , test yourself to find out how close you are to having a financially secure and stable music career .
Music Industry Challenge Two : Getting More Paying Gigs : Musician # 1 thinks : " I ' m not making enough money from my gigs because booking venue owners don ' t pay well and are ripping me off ." Musicians who think like this will never be able to find the best gigs that pay tons of money . If you want to earn more money from a gig , you have to help that venue earn more money . By just showing up and playing , you won ' t achieve this goal ( unless you are already a huge band with tons of fans ). Musician # 2 thinks : " I need to get more people to come to my shows . This will help any venue see the value I have to earn them more money , so they ' ll pay me more ." This kind of thinking helps you make more money from your gigs . When you build value in the eyes of the people you want to work with , it raises the amount of money they are willing to invest into working with you ( i . e . paying you for a gig ). However , this mindset is still limited in the amount of success it can bring you . Musician # 3 thinks : " I need to get more people to come see me play AND get them to purchase my music / merchandise + actively support my band ."
Using this mindset causes you to take drastically different actions when it comes to self-promotion ( when contrasted to the other approaches I mentioned ). This will lead to very different and bigger results .
This mindset will help you : 1 . Get more people to come out and see you , helping the venue earn more money in the process . 2 . Make way more income overall ( from the money you make from the gig + music and merchandise sales ). 3 . Not worry too much about how much money you make from the show itself . 4 . Make it easier for you to get the gig , since you can do it for much less money than anyone else .
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