All About YOU

By Johnny Dwinell

At least once a week I’ll get an email asking “What does it take to have a successful music career like _____?” The short answer is that there are literally a million ways to skin that cat, but the ONLY common denominator in EVERY success story is the artist. Every successful story in the music business has many facets and crazy subplots but they all have an artist, like you;

so it’s really ALL ABOUT YOU

You have to know that success in any field is about creating relationships

You have to know that creating relationships is never about what they can do for you rather what you can do to add value to them (so start giving more and asking for less, dummy)

You have to be willing to:

Listen
Relocate
Regroup
Change
Strategize
Risk
Be Vulnerable
Say “No”
Say “Yes”
WORK (harder than anyone else)
Tour
Collaborate
Be a student of the game
Fail

All these things naturally happen when you have a solid goal and you are REALLY supposed to be there; you find a way to win. It’s all about YOU. When YOU really HAVE to be there, the proverbial “juice” is worth the “squeeze”.

You have to be willing to weather:

Many storms
Speed-bumps
Setbacks
Rejection
Devastation
Abandonment
Assholes
Incompetence
Paradigm shifts
Massive strategic changes
Band member changes
Betrayal
Haters
Bad press
Passive aggressive Douche-bags

It’s all about YOU

Just like you would do ANYTHING to physically survive (i.e. food, shelter, water, oxygen); the same goes for your career.

Are you waiting around for someone to come “discover” you need to eat or do you go find food?
Are you waiting around for someone to “discover” that you need water or do you find a way to hydrate?
Are you waiting around for someone to “discover” you need shelter from the crappy cold snap we just had or have you already found a way to shelter yourself?
Are you waiting around for someone to knock on your door and “discover” that you need a job or have you found work?
Are you waiting to be “discovered” as an artist or are you finding a way to make it happen?

Creating, performing, and simply existing in the artistic community is JUST as essential as breathing for any real artist. I have literally tried SEVERAL times to hang it up (and been very successful in other fields) but I never could leave the music business; it’s in my blood. I always had a studio in my house. I always maintained my music business relationships.

Unless you’re an invalid nobody is going to constantly babysit you for too long, ensuring you eat, sleep, drink, eliminate, shower, work, etc., you have to find a way to do these things for yourself; your survival is all about YOU.

Why the hell do so many so-called “artists” act like invalids? Why do they believe their existence as artists relies on anyone else other than themselves? Why do so many so-called “artists” dream to become invalids where they get a big break and press the “EZ Button” while their entourage dotes over their every need? This doesn’t happen in real life and it certainly doesn’t happen with real artists.

I don’t get it.

So my answer to the question, “What does it take to have a successful music career like so and so?” is the one thing artist love to hear the most!