Your attitude about money says a lot about how you make, spend and save your money. How do you feel about your money?
A lot of people have fears around how to manage their money which can hold them back from taking the first steps towards financial freedom. ((Take the Financial Freedom Quiz-Part I, to assess your attitudes and learn more about how to manage your money). Now it’s time to figure out how you feel about abundance and career success
Financial Freedom Quiz Part II
Complete the following sentences:
1. Abundance is…
2. To be successful as a musician, I must…
3. My best career options are…
Abundance and Scarcity
How do you feel about abundance and scarcity when it comes to making money?
If your attitude is that there are only a few choice opportunities for musicians and thousands of competitors vying for those spots, this will contribute to a perpetual state of fear around making money as a musician. If, on the other hand, you allow yourself to create opportunities that align with your personal and artistic vision, the world begins to open up. Let’s explore the notion of success a little further.
Career Success for Classical Musicians
Perhaps you answered the quiz something like this:
“In order to be successful as a musician, I need to get an orchestra job or a teaching position or be a soloist or member of a prestigious ensemble.”
And then the fears around scarce opportunities kick in and you feel that your chances of being a successful musician are pretty slim.
Here’s the good news:
In today’s world of the Internet and social media, with low barriers to entry for creating an ensemble, making and distributing a CD, starting your own teaching studio, combined with new types of performance venues, there are a lot of ways to create financially sustainable careers as musicians beyond the traditional careers as soloists under management, a position in a major orchestra or a tenured-track teaching job at a major university.
What if you were to open up your definition of success to include other ways of making money? To what extent have you explored the different ways of making money as a musician?
Exploring Career Options
Spend some time reading blogs and books on music entrepreneurship to get a better idea of the many different ways to perform and teach music. Some great resources are the books The Savvy Musician and Beyond Talent and the blog Ask Edna where you can submit your questions on how to create a successful music career to Edna Landau, an experienced classical music manager. You can also subscribe to the Daily Arts Journal, which collects the leading articles and blogs on all aspects of the arts.
To get you started, here’s a great post on 20 ways to make money as a classical musician.
Another source of information is to pay attention to what other musicians are doing. What excites you? What ideas can you get about your own career? See what excites you because there are a lot of interesting folks out there making successful careers in their own ways. For example, read about the career paths of 4 successful music entrepreneurs and the variety of skills and talents that they bring to their careers beyond performing.
Bottom Line:
Get clear on your attitudes towards abudance, career success and your career options as a musician and figure out what is holding you back. As any good entrepreneur knows, it’s important to face your challenges. So start off by taking the Financial Freedom Quizes and zeroing in on your biggest challenges. Then pick one area on which to focus and take one small step.
Next time: debt and spending
