If you’re more concerned with Jersey Shore, whatever tweets or tumblr posts you’re missing out on, smoking or drinking without having something to celebrate, or anything else relating to un-productivity and ignoring your future, stop reading this now. I’ve been thinking a lot lately and just felt like sharing a few things that I feel prompted to and that I feel would help not only artists but anyone aspiring to do something in life.
So for those of you who are reading this and don’t know me or what I do, the fact that you don’t is precisely what triggered the following thoughts and statements. To get straight to the point - I make music. But I have this problem of not following trends and not doing things people before me have to receive attention for what I do. I refuse to sell out (although, in complete honesty, it does cross my mind on frustrated days and I do entertain the thought from time to time), I won’t conform to anybody or anything and I refuse to talk about popular topics or whatever is hot at the moment like “swag”, weed, money or women in a degrading manner. But I’m not underground. In fact I hate underground, but that’s a different story for a different day. The bottom line is, I’m trying to do things my way in a business full of compromise.
“But how does this relate to me Julian?” Glad you asked. See, the climb up isn’t as pretty or fun as people make it seem, in any industry. So through what I’m learning and experiencing, maybe you can pull a thing or two from it. When you’re chasing a dream, these are things you have to be conscious of while pursuing it…
1. If you don’t have heart, stop now & spare yourself the time & frustration. If you’re not ready to be hated on, if you’re not ready to go through valleys, if you’re not ready to be told “No” and still confidently chase your dream, just stop what you’re doing altogether. Half-heartedly doing something is only going to hurt you in the end. Don’t set yourself up for failure. If you really want it, commit to it with your whole being or settle for mediocrity. Drive, perseverance and the grace of God are the only things that will get you there. Don’t depend on anyone or anything else but you and God himself.
2. Understand that this game (music) like many others, is exactly that…a game. It’s politics. It’s a popularity contest. The people with the most money and know the right people are going to win (“get on”). Just like in politics. Is that whack? Of course. But is it going to change? No. And if you’re waiting for it to change, be ready to wait a very, very long time.
3. Talent doesn’t override hard-work. A cold hard truth (even one I wanted to ignore for a long time) is accepting that talent no longer matters. And if it does, it matters less now than it ever has. That’s when this thing called “hard work” comes in. When you know you’re talented, but you don’t have a bunch of money or know the “right” people (yet), hard work is really all you have. Drive, perseverance and the grace of God are the only things that will get you where you want to be. Don’t depend on anyone or anything else but yourself.
For example, there are plenty of artists that have record deals, are getting tons of money etc. that (in the most humble way possible) I know for a fact I am more talented than. Furthermore, EVERYONE else might think I am (or you are at fill-in-the-blank) too…but that doesn’t change anything. Even though it’s not fair, even though they may have gotten lucky, even though they may have known the right person, or maybe they’re just not very talented but extremely hard-working; one way or another, they got where they are. And if you’re going to get where you know you deserve to be, you’re going to have to be humble and understand that the only weapons you have (again) are drive, perseverance and the grace of God. The only way to stand a chance against these hardworking but untalented artists/writers/actors etc is to outwork them. Beat them at their own game. If untalented people can “make it” through hard work, you can make it through working harder AND having the talent to back it up. Because when you get there (where THEY are), that’s what’s going to keep you there. But you have to outwork everyone first before you get there, talent doesn’t give you entitlement to success. Nothing’s more common in this world than talented people who are unsuccessful.
4. Nothing worth having will come to you without sacrifice. This might be the most important because it’s what will make or break majority of people. If you want to be successful, you’re going to have to sacrifice. Sacrifice sleep, sacrifice time with family, sacrifice time with friends, and sacrifice entertainment (tv, twitter, facebook, youtube, all that). If you’d rather be doing any of the aforementioned things (aside from time with family, that’s the hardest for me to personally give up because I value family so much) than working towards your goals and turning your dreams into reality, then trust and believe there’s someone else out there sacrificing what you won’t because they want it more than you do. Period.
5. Love what you do and have fun doing it. If you don’t love what you do, if you don’t have a passion for it, if you won’t do it for FREE, then please, stop. Don’t do music (or whatever you’re pursuing) because it pays if you “make it big”. Don’t do it because you’ll be popular and you’ll get women or guys you thought you could never have without success (or society’s definition of it at least). And don’t do it for someone else. Because if you do it for any of those reasons, it will be revealed at one point or another and you’ll find yourself empty once you realize the hype is gone and everyone shifts their attention to whoever’s “next”. Everyone has their time, and if you don’t love what you do, you won’t enjoy the journey to the top, your time there or your time after. Do it because you can never picture yourself doing anything else. If you love it, work hard and have fun doing it. We don’t live forever - but if you take heed to these words and implement all (“some” will only produce partial results) of these things in your life, your work will.
Class is Everything. Family is Everything. God is Everything.
