A key trait most successful people in any industry have and most musicians lack
I have come to discover that almost everybody who reaches a high level of success has a trait that most musicians and artists quite often lack. Self worth. If you don't vlaue yourself and your work how will anyone else?
Most successful musicians have an extraordinary drive and self-belief. This often comes from a good support system around them. With the amount of failure and rejection that musicians experience on a daily basis, a strong belief in oneself and the will to persevere are requisites.
You have got to believe in yourself, because if you don’t nobody else will.
How many times has somebody told you how great you sounded after you played a show and you told them “It wasn’t that good, I wish I had played better” or you tell others you are “not that great.” By saying these things you obviously don’t believe in yourself, but more importantly you are not valuing yourself for what you are truly worth. How are you ever going to accept success when it comes your way if you don’t believe you are worth it? How are you going to make the money you want if you actively are telling people you are not worth it?
You will never cut a deal that gives you the value you are worth until you accept how valuable you really are. A friend told me once that “you can have a million jobs but only one life. When you work for somebody else you are selling them time out of your life. Make sure you are giving value to that time because you won’t get it back.” Successful people understand their value. Successful musicians do not undervalue themselves. Amanda Palmer would never have raised over a million dollars if she hadn’t truly believed that what she was doing was worth it. She knew the value that her music and performances gave her audience; what she could do for them was just as valuable as what her audience could do for her financially, so it was a fair exchange. She believed she was worth it, and she was comfortable accepting it through crowdfunding.
As a mountaineer, getting 200 metres within reach of one of the world’s highest summits and then choosing to turn back was an experience that made me realize I wasn’t ready for a dream to become a reality. Or at least so I thought for some time. I even came up with the concept of “fear of the summit”—the idea that, when a dream is within reach or success stares us in the face, we can experience fear of realizing it. This might sound ridiculous, but it is widely the case that people sabotage their own success out of fear. Under closer examination I realize that the only true fear is of not being worthy. Am I worthy of living my dream? Am I worthy of reaching success? And the answer is yes, you need to value yourself for your true worth, otherwise success will stare you in the face and you will cower in its shadow.
If you want your dreams to come true you have to stop seeing them as dreams and start seeing them as the natural result of your actions. If you are great then great things will come to you.
