What does success mean to you? Is it a million streams, a record deal or an eight figure valuation for your business? If, like me, you’ve pivoted your ambitions once or twice or a bunch of times over the years, I’m here to tell you: it’s okay to change your mind.
I’m writing this from my hometown in Romania, a small city that’s nowhere near anyone’s radar. The teen version of me was so desperate to leave it all behind that each time I had to return to see my family I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I’m taking a step back in my journey. Until about a year ago. That’s when things started shifting in a major way for me from an internal compass perspective. Suddenly, the things that used to bring me the most joy were now making me feel indifferent at best, or close to giving me a panic attack at worst. Among them – inbox zero, traveling every other week, late night raves and drinking (I still love live music and some DJ nights though), packing 10 meetings into my day, IRL shopping. Over the past year, they have slowly but surely been getting replaced with new yearnings – stillness, spending 3h preparing a meal, patiently listening to my family stories that I’ve already heard a hundred times before, writing (more than just emails and decks), seasons (yes, you start missing that after spending almost a decade in LA).
Is it me or is boring the new cool? You might say I’m getting old but, oddly enough, I feel younger than ever before. I’m just really enjoying my festina lente era, and it’s okay if you are too. Worked for the likes of Napoleon and Augustus, I guess, and it’s all the rave with personal development gurus out there today (even more proof that LA got to me). Was I losing touch with the same ambition that got me here, I thought?
Turns out it’s quite the contrary. My intuition has slowly been pushing me to laser-focus the type of energy I was putting into things and reconsider how I was spending it. I instinctively knew that in order to bring my best self into anything required a balance between hard work and smart work. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t be putting in 16h work days anymore; it just meant that, when it did happen, I knew that I’d have to make it up with off days. It also means that I now have a much clearer, incremental process about achieving my wildest dreams. And contrary to what one may think, the dreams are getting more ambitious than ever before. I simply understood that, in order to reach the high mountaintop, you must break down the journey into smaller steps and be as consistent as possible with your commitment.
And since we’re all music people here, it doesn’t necessarily mean waking up at 6am every day and grinding out the perfect schedule on a daily basis. It does, however imply, that you put in some work daily – and work can sometimes mean taking half a day to clean your house, 1h to go for a walk, 2h to talk to your mentor or 4h to volunteer at our local charity. Or maybe you do need that daily structure. You do you and find whatever helps enter your flow state. And if two months or two years later you change course, that’s absolutely fine. In fact, it’s most likely a positive thing. The amount of time it takes doesn’t really matter as it’s proportional with the depth of the task at hand.
This is why most music marketer’s advice for independent artists nowadays says that you should focus on your 1000 true fans first. It doesn’t mean you should stop at 1000 fans, it simply breaks down the daunting task of becoming a successful artist into a systematic process. The first step in that process is developing a strong relationship with this early group of people because they will unlock an initial level of financial support in addition to providing you with feedback that will help you finetune your music and your identity as a creative. This applies to music entrepreneurs and executives alike - whether it means focusing on your first 100 customers or your first mentor.
In other words, take it slow and enjoy the process. The more present you are with the journey, the more likely it is that it will take you to more and more interesting places, pushing you to redefine what success means to you at every corner.