The security of no security
If you’re a full-time musician, you’ll never have a job, a boss, a salary, or insurance. You’ll bootstrap everything yourself. You’ll always struggle against apathy and gate-keepers. And you’ll have to be one-in-a-million to achieve this incredibly difficult goal.
To some people, this sounds horrible. To me, it was a dream come true.
Someone with a steady 9-5 job asked me how I could handle the lack of security.
Lack of security? Living this way is like learning wilderness survival skills. Being able to fend for yourself is real security.
- You’re constantly thrown into new scenarios, and learn something new every time.
- You’re not given a safety net, so you learn to make your own.
- Your career is not tied to any one company.
- Your success or failure is up to you — not the whims of a boss.
- You’re a free agent, so you can take any opportunity.
- Your pay is always negotiable. You can experiment in doubling your rates, or charging however you’d like.
Basically, having no steady job keeps you at your best! To me, it’s the ideal life.
being both an entrepreneur and a musician, i agree - it's basically the same thing. and i've never had a "real" job either - or owned a tie. woo!
Unfortunately, in today's scary economy, all those factors also apply to a lot of people who never had any desire to be an entrepreneur.
ha .. i've been working on a similar thought process for a while! I TOTALLY AGREE. It's amazing how an artist is essentially a startup.
digging deeper, it's amazing the parallels later stage as well. Startups/entrepreneurs usually shop their ideas to investors in the same way artists shop their demos to labels. Both are looking for someone with more experience, resources, and connections to give the idea/music a chance for a big break. They give up a lot (equity/royalties) for the initial investment/advance. The list goes on and on ..
I've often thought that if there's enough meat to this comparison, one day i might write a book about it .. who knows if it'd be interesting.
Anyway, thanks for the post!
I have recently switched from musician to entrepreneur, and yes the similarities are striking.
But the picture you've posted is one of the most delightful things I've seen in a while.
What made you think about kids Derek? hehe
Steve
Cool idea....I relate to it a lot. I teach guitar, play in a bunch of bands, run a studio, run sound, play in a church band, do tunes for film, and sell tunes on CDBaby. Ever heard of CDBaby? But I'm booked hardcore 7 days a week and don't know how to stop! I'm terribly sleep deprived and zombified as well as slightly mummified. So beware, you may live your dream, but get so caught up in it you can't do anything else!
Derek - Thanks for a great post and an interesting take on subject that is near and dear to our (mine and my colleagues') hearts. If you substitute the word 'musician' with 'music educator' in your post, you get the life we've been leading here at the Dallas School of Music and MusickEd.com for the past 15 years. You are one of the very few people we've come across from 'inside' music that truly 'gets it'. I hope you'll take the tour of our work below and see how a group of music educators have passionately attempted to bridge the gap between entrepreneurship and music education. Continued success to you and yours.
http://www.musicked.com/demo/musicked.htm
I laughed at the cat in the picture. That cat sometimes represents my life dealing with vendors who can not understand just send the payment to the address on the invoice/w9. Not the old address from the past years information on it.
Oh so true! A very inspiring article for those who may not have seen it that way.
I write poetry, fiction and songs, and I write for Fortune 500 companies. I've been a freelancer for the past 23 years, and I found far more security working for myself than I ever did working inside. That being said...
Today, any artist who thinks he/she does not need to know marketing and be boldly entrepreneurial is a) out of touch with reality, b) very lucky, or c) out of the game.
I can't stop laughing at the picture... thanks for that. :)
Great thoughts as well, naturally.
Ironically enough, those are the same things I used to be threatened with if I didn't find a job or do what I was told when I was a kid. I guess it depends on your outlook.
I am a Classical musician. I didn't like begging and didn't feel it right to ask others to pay my way. I got a family and was always conflicted between freelancing, with it's lack of security, and supprting my family, which required a secure income. So I work for someone else and choose what musical projects I want to do. At the current time I enjoy a collaboration with a local singing Professor, who has provided me with some opportunities as well as some credibility in the Artistic community in this town. I do this collaboration because I enjoy the opportunities. I don't want someone else to call the tune I want to play. I don't know what else to say about this subject.
Nice one man. I am writing this on my last week of working in a 9-5 job (ever!). I tried it out for 1.5 years and it really was not for me.
Luckily I had spent a lot of time at Grad school doing a PhD. In those years I learnt a lot, I joined student politics clubs, live music clubs, sports clubs, language clubs and more...most importantly I learnt to live my life to fullest on a shoestring income.
I now know for sure that I am an entreprenuer. Thanks so much Derek for being one of my inspirations! You pointed me to Tim Ferris's book which is awesome!
Joshua's post reflects my concern. It's nice to see a post like that by a man. It's very very hard to be the family breadwinner (and I'm a woman) as a working musician. Just yesterday I was thinking how much more musically productive I might be if I once again had a day job. In fact, I wrote a song about it. Wanna hear it? Here it go...
Seriously, it's on my YouTube page. But I don't want to be a lame-o linking to myself... If it is truly good it will find its way to the right ears ;-)
The road is wicked rough but I do find your attitude inspiring and in a world of motivational bloggers you're the best because you make me sit down and write songs and hone my craft and that's cool!
Thank you for this post. Entrepreneurs are artists! You've crystallized something I understood only subconsciously. I've had a full-time job for 10 years, and I have a family, so I'm taking things slowly and becoming a part-time entrepreneur first. I just earned my first $100 as an entrepreneur, but you have to start somewhere. It'll be an interesting journey for sure. And the funny thing is I've noticed this shift in my mindset actually helps me perform better in my "regular day job".
That picture says it all. Hilarious!!!
great post! no wonder as a musician I keep reading tips from entrepreneurs!
i love this post and pierre smack's comment about it...i know the feeling..
This is very true, never saw this perspective.
This is very interesting, and I am glad you agree that entrepreneurs and musicians have much in common. I am a musician (pianist), and I would like to start a start-up in water technology. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on keeping up a music career and running a start-up?
I would imagine it would be quite difficult. But would it be like "the fox who chases two rabbits catches neither"?
Thanks!
Of course we all have insecurities. In my case, if my boss describes me as insecure (as part of a a periodic evaluation) then it's because relative to others I truly am. Needless to say, I have measurably changed my life with self-talk and positive thinking and positive action.
But at the end of the day, concepts like diminishing returns and focusing on where I get the most results means that I am not cut out for being an entrepreneur, nor a full-time artist. My reality is that I need a secure job, not as a temporary day job, but for my whole working life. Maybe working less hours than a non-artist, leaving time for art too.I think Derek once advised something like that.
I just want to say that for some people, like me, fear is painful visceral thing. Maybe because I grew up under stress with no safety. I choose not to live like that as an adult.