My blog has just crested over 300 views! Not bad for a little more than 2 weeks' worth of writing. Thank you for reading! Hope you all are enjoying it!
So most of you know me, as I am only really marketing this through my personal facebook profile. This means that most of you know I am a bit of a music nut... :-)
Today I'm going to share with you why it is very, very important to be objective when considering turning your passion into your business. I have done so, and I have experienced the highest of highs, and, unfortunately, the lowest of possible lows. Here is my $0.02.
Whether you believe in God (meaning a higher power responsible for creation of life and managing its balance) or not, I feel it is safe to say we are all "programmed" to gravitate toward certain subjective activities. In other words, we find ourselves passionate about things that, most often, have absolutely no logical purpose, economically, or in terms of free-trade with other beings, relative to what it costs to compete and market products of those activities. Yes, I am talking about art, sports, poetry, music, and those other things we hide from others and lie about being good at. Yet we are often encouraged to refrain from doing those things we love so very much, and instead focus on what will earn, with more certainty, income.
In other words, our passion projects are not likely to bring us any tangible, spendable reward.
Since I can only speak from my own experiences, I am going to do just that (and I'll keep it short, as, during this time of year, I play the ever-loving SHIT out of my acoustic guitar, which I need to get back to... :-). I decided to make a run at transforming my passion (at one time football, for those of you who know me back in the day) for music into my earning model, or how I would make money for a living. To summarize 9 years of trench warfare, heart break, Super Bowl-Championship-esque highs, and constant struggle, I can tell you why turning your passion into a business can lead you to "pass" on the passion, and that is sad!
When you begin to think about your music, drawings, etc. in terms of a business, often times you need capital, or other people's risk, to get your venture going (unless you've bypassed the "starving artist" phase, which, if you have, call me, and I'll help you write a NY Times Bestseller). Whether it's friends, family, rich kids, or all three who initially invest, the second their money is in your hands for purposes of selling your taste (which means the art you think is "dope"), the psychological dynamic changes... BIG, BIG, BIG TIME. A very subtle giant makes his way into the creative process, and his name is "Expectation". This is the spoiling ingredient in your new "profit-focused" creative process! You now have investor expectations to meet, and this means return on investment, or selling your taste (art, etc.) to the market, and opportunity cost, or the money the investors "could" be making if you weren't spending it on new colored pencils. And you better make "sell-able" work, because if you don't, you risk losing money from friends, family, and rich kids, and this would be bad for both your emotional health and for your new business.
You now expectations to meet. You are no longer allowed to strum, paint, write, rap, scribble, stencil, whatever until your creation is masterpiece. Now you have conditions, limits, and... shit... MATH to do, relative to when, how, and with who you can create. Your passion, or hobby, has become just the opposite: it is now a business.
It morphs into a "job", whereby you are being compensated according to someone else's evaluation of your worth. Your work must meet the taste and expectation variables associated with economic purchasing model of the market, and if these conflict with your creative aura, well...
You're back to doing it for a hobby, which is exactly where I recommend you do it, UNLESS you can self-fund your endeavors. Then it doesn't matter how long it takes to make money, or how much money you lose!
Hope you all are enjoying your holidays!!
Well said maistro...very well said....BRAVO
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