This year, try something new. Start something. Quit something. Take a risk. Be more than you are today. Becuase the way I see it, if you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re gonna keep getting what you’ve been getting.
The crazy people aren’t those who risk it all and fail. The crazy people are the ones that spend their lives doing the same thing day after day expecting life to magically turn around. It won’t. Unless… you do something about it. Today.
We all know the quote by Thomas Edison when asked about his 10,000 failed attempts at inventing the light bulb. He replied:
I have not failed 10,000 times. I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.
Isn’t that what life’s about? Isn’t that how we find success and discover the thing that only we are best-suited to offer the world?
Keep poking, prodding, trying new things… And fail until you find what you’re looking for. Try a career and fail. Start a business and fail. Chase a girl and fail. Aren’t these all just vehicles that get us to where we’re really trying to go?
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I’m considering making some extreme changes in my music – not in the music itself, but more in the business and the brand side of it. The current model is broken. It’s failed. And that’s okay.
Failing is good. The music business is extremely broken, and so far my attempts to set myself apart from that business model have failed as well.
Failing isn’t the problem here. The problem is repeating what has already failed and expecting it to be different this time. None of the above work. Pieces of them might work. But as a whole, they are incredibly broken.
I just thought I’d let you know, I’m going to try some new things. Some of them you will like, some you won’t. Some will fail, but others will be crazy successes. The point is, I’m not going to stand by and pretend like nothing is broken when it clearly is. Try something new. Keep trying. After you fail enough times, something’s got to work. Eventually, a lot of things will work. Then you win.
Most people are too afraid to do anything extraordinary. 99% of people will admit they’re afraid of failure. 1% will admit that what they’re really afraid of success. They’re comfortable with being mediocre, so they’d rather stay that way than do anything that would radically change their life… even if it’s for the better.
But what am I most afraid of? The fear of regret. I can’t imagine looking myself in the mirror 20 years from now and wondering, what if. What if I would have taken that small step of faith? What if I would have done something artistic with my life? What if I would I have asked that girl out?
You’ve one life left to live. Face the fear, and do it anyways.
This is one of my favorite parts of the book Rework by Jason Fried (@jasonfried) of 37 Signals. I read the book a few months ago and this part really, really stuck with me…
You will not be a big hit right away. You will not get rich quick. You are not so special that everyone will instantly pay attention. No one cares about you. At least not yet. Get used to it.
This is exactly how I felt on Monday night and Tuesday morning after I launched my new Kickstarter fan funding campaign. I wanted my fans, my listeners, to see what I was doing and just jump on board instantly! But I forgot the most important part… NOBODY CARES ABOUT ME! (*at least not yet!*)
And those people who do really care… who follow every musical adventure I go on, they still have lives. They still have priorities much higher up on the totem pole than taking notice of my latest project. This project will not be an overnight success… it will be a long, hard-fought battle… And I’m still not sure it’s even going to get funded.
It doesn’t matter. If it fails, I’m going to try something else. I’m going to find another strategy… One that is impossible not to notice. I’m going to keep at it because that is what real artists do. Real artists don’t stop after one painting. They don’t stop after their hundredth painting. In fact, it’s likely that they’ll never stop, regardless of whether or not they ever make a dime from their art.
Time isn’t money, but money can surely buy an artist the time he needs to create his art, and to create better art… to create art more often. $10,000 would help. But it doesn’t make or break my art. It just buys me enough time to focus on creating something amazing.
If this fails and I have to grunt it out for 52 consecutive weeks to get people to notice, I will. I’m not afraid of failure. It is the failures that prove whether or not you are strong enough to stand back up. You fail, and you build it better, bigger, and stronger for next time. No one wins every time, but no one fails every time either.
Nobody cares about us – at least not yet.
