There’s Never a Perfect Time

Someday, I’ll… Pretty soon, I’m gonna… I can feel that this year will be the year that I… I almost have everything ready to… As soon as I finish this one, I’ll be ready to… I’ve heard you should have everything set, and then…

We’ve all heard these things. The “When I’s”. The “If when, then’s”. The statements that prolong the dream. I call them lies of convenience. I call them that because, more often than not, that’s exactly what they are. They are little lies you tell yourself so that you can continue to “not do”. So that you can keep being afraid. So that you can carry on procrastinating.

There’s Never a Perfect Time to Go Pro

You just have to close your eyes and jump. You’ll never have the financial freedom to make it work, and in fact, if there was zero risk in starting a business (which is what a Creative Career is — a business), millions upon millions of them would be popping up every day and there would be no room for you anyway. While there is an art in knowing if you have the skills to pay the bills, there is never a perfect time to jump into the already rushing water once you do know. You are going to get wet no matter what you do, so you may as well commit if you think you have what it takes to be competitive. Let’s face it — you are never going to quit your day job if it’s paying all your bills and making you comfortable in life. People just don’t do that unless they have major guts. And even then, most don’t. So, create some discomfort in your life if that’s what it’s going to take. Pinch your nose, close your eyes tight, and jump. The water is warmer than you think it is.

There’s Never a Perfect Time to Finish Pet Projects

We are artists for commerce. That’s what we do to keep the lights on, and for most artistic realities it’s what matters most. But sometimes we get a feel for something more we’d like to do but don’t have the time for — a pet project. A “darling”. When do you work on that stuff? If you are lucky enough to be at all busy in your career, the answer quite possibly is “never”. But being busy and studious on commercial projects still won’t stave off the deep desire to flesh out that thing you’ve “always wanted to do”. Having just fought my way through the most rewarding challenge of my life — a solo record — I know this well. My priorities haven’t necessarily shifted, but I now recognize the value in feeding myself as well as taking exquisite care of my clients. Find that balance — I think you’ll be happier.

There’s Never a Perfect Time to Start Charging

Ah, yes… the paradox of placing a value on your work. It sucks, no matter when you have the epiphany of, hey… I don’t care what mom and dad said… I might be worth a damn! The problem is that most artists wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and wait to charge anything for what they do…. for so long that they essentially work through their first tier of collaborators. Then, when those folks are ready to initiate another project, their good memory kicks in and you’re screwed! They absolutely remember the major bargain you were first time around and try and lock you into that. And believe me,they will. Everything valuable about the relationship you decided to hand over to them the minute you undercharged or worse, never charged at all. You’re friends now, so what are going to do? Start being a businessperson? I don’t think so. “C’mon man! Give me the big brother hook up! I got you your first gig!” You can hear them, can;t you? That’s a lot of pressure… cuz it’s true! Don’t set yourself up for that. It’s the cardinal sin. If you set that precedent you’ll be making up for it a lot longer than you ever wanted to. Jump right in and do what everyone else who’s working on this thing is doing — asking for what they are worth.One more note on this: What You’re Worth = just that… what YOU are worth. Not what Zimmer is worth or what Silvestri is worth or what Rolf Kent is worth or whomever else… YOU. If you are just starting out and you aren’t worth more than a couple Benji’s, then don’t overcharge. But for goodness sake… charge something.

There’s Never a Perfect Time to Learn

Confused about how high to write an alto flute part? Don’t be embarrassed. It happens… even to people who were “schooled” in music. I know a guy — a really talented and educated composer — who was writing a score for a film that you would absolutely know the name of, and he wrote all the cimbaso parts several notes lower than the instrument is capable of playing… and then orchestrated the score himself. Like I said, we all do bonehead shit. But when we do, we need to learn from it. Learn what you did wrong and vow to never let it happen again. Ask someone — an educator, an orchestrator, a composer at SCOREcast, a mentor, someone at VI Control — to share with you what the secret behind that solution is. Don’t be embarrassed, don’t curl up in a ball in your studio out of humiliation… just get a book, ask someone, or take a course and get on with the learning process. Can’t read music? Fine. Start now. It’s never too late to learn an instrument, learn to read notation, learn to conduct, or any number of other things you don’t know how to do yet. This applies to all disciplines, not just composers. John Maxwell says, “When you stop learning, you stop leading”. How true that is.

There’s Never a Perfect Time to Take Care of Yourself

Standing at an easel all day, sitting in a composing chair for 14 hours, or bent over a computer screen ’til 4am takes its toll on your body. You might be the perfect specimen of health, but still… combatting fatigue and erosion of your bodily strength is a long sucky road that you definitely don’t want to head down now. Trust me on this. I bet I know way more about it than you do. In fact I’d bet money on it. Because of decisions I made about my health many years ago, I am forced to think about these things on a minute-by-minute basis every day that I have left on Earth. If that sounds overly dramatic to you, good. It’s supposed to. Artists are the worst at taking care of themselves. You need plenty of sleep, plenty of water, and plenty of functional ergonomics in your workflow/work area if you aren’t going to look like the Sloth from The Goonies by the time you are 50. I know you think you don’t have time, but getting 6-8 hours of sleep nightly and taking periodic walks around the block every couple of hours of work will insure you are healthy enough to still be working on down the line… AND … your work will still be there when you get back. It’s a multiplier of efficiencies: The more healthy you are,the more you’ll accomplish in a given hour. That’s not Deane’s opinion, that’s science talking.

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I’ve written about playing golf with my Dad here before. One time when I was about to bash my skull in with a nice Ping nine-iron, he told me,

“The truth of it is that at some point, you might become better than everybody else, but you’ll never master the game.”

And that’s the secret. If you are any kind of artist at all, you’ll never be happy. Even when you do make the jump and you are full-steam ahead in this thing, you’ll be constantly running to the window to see what you might be missing by not doing A, B, or C. We are just wired that way. So, there’s no reason to starve your success by being lazy about things that we all know do work — the things that have already been proven time and time again. There will always be an excuse. There will always be a reason. And there will always be someone telling you what’s NOT possible. To hell with all that — jump anyway. Start now. Do it this second. Today.

In fact, why are you even reading this? You’ve already wasted seven minutes.

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EASTERN CHRONICLE is my new album that is available worldwide on T-ABC Records. You can download it here on the website in any uncompressed format you can think of. You can also get it in AAC format from iTunes, on MP3 from Amazon.com and in various formats on just about every digital carrier that is out there including Spotify and MOG. If a physical copy is more your speed, the CD is available at retailers throughout Asia and North America.