Photo Courtesy:  Smithsonian Institution

To be a great artist, you must be a producer, not a consumer.  You have to make time to produce… stuff people will listen to, things people will latch onto and ideas that people will connect with.  Don’t sit and watch tv, don’t zone out in laziness, don’t follow blindly.  The all-in musician will get farther down the road of success if they are willing to be active and even when it requires sacrifice, they are willing to make hard decisions.  To be a producer, a leader and a visionary… these are some things you’ll need in your back pocket:

1. The grit.  People gonna gripe, people gonna doubt.  Don’t listen.  Just ignore what they say.  If you believe you have something worthy for the world, don’t give up on the craft and what you want to say.  Know that you have purpose for being here- to spread goodness, music and beauty that is desperately needed in a dark world.
2. The Drive.  You can’t watch movies five nights a week, sit down when you get home from your day job or say “I don’t feel like it today.”  True love is seen when you have to do something even when you don’t feel like it.  If it was an easy path to musical success, more people would be taking it or at least excelling.
3. The level-headedness.  You can’t believe the hype- you can’t believe what people say about you.  Listen to Rudyard kipling- you can’t listen to their praise or their negativity.  Keep pressing on in pursuit of your goals.  Don’t let others deter you as you strive to do better things than yesterday.  The ugliness of the naysayers will always surround you like a cloud of smog.  But put on that mask of confidence and walk through the ugliness surrounding you, knowing that the only people who tear others down are most unhappy inside themselves.  Look up- stand up- and you’ll move up.

Have a lovely Tuesday, dear friends 🙂

~lme