So this week has largely been about creating new things. I just started working with a song writer/arranger to help me take the melodies and words I am creating, and figure out how to turn them into songs. I have a tape recorder I carry with me everywhere filled with snippets of musical ideas, words and lyrics, and each day I spend time seeing how they fit together.
The show The Bite-Size Arts Ensemble will be presenting, is going to be original, so the music needs to be too.
It is really exciting to think that at some point in the future I will have put all this together, but its also quite daunting, because I have never done most of what I am attempting to do right now. By focusing on just one new thing at a time, instead of looking at the whole, I find it easier to cope with all the unknowns and potential risks.
Since I have never written a single song, and now, not only will I be writing one, but a number of them; that seems like a big enough challenge for me for right now. A long time ago I use to write poetry for fun, I also took voice lessons for about a year, and I do love to sing, but it is a completely new experience for me. What makes it easier to do this, in my moments of doubt, is first off knowing that I believe that I am capable of doing anything I set my mind to, and secondly that regardless of what anyone thinks, I am moving closer towards what I want to share and do for others passionately.
With all the new things I am doing these days, it would be easy for me to feel that it is simply unrealistic, too difficult, and that I have lost my mind, trying to help artists through my writing, musical performance and consulting. After all, does anyone really care about what I have to offer?
That’s what makes Entrepreneurship hard; until your efforts are embraced, your vision is all you have to support you. Having climbed this mountain a number of times in life, I can tell you that the climb never gets any easier. You will climb the mountain alone, until others begin to reveal that they need you to help them climb their own mountain too.
That point comes when it is ready to, so stay on your path and keep climbing until you turn the corner and see a small crowd waiting to cheer you on and walk with you too!
So if your feeling kinda down and wondering what you can do to stop your life from running you around, remember what your creative self is made from and spend some time there. ( Hey, maybe this could be a line in one of my songs! I kind of like it…)
Sure not every original idea you have will be a good one. God knows some of mine have done a great big old belly flop; but that’s also how you find the jewels.
Creativity is largely about being originally you. I am discovering how many different ways I can be original with my message by presenting it in unique and different ways.
Entrepreneurship at its core is about taking what you know, and who you are, and allowing your message and skills to be evident in as many ways possible, but, making sure that you hold steady to the focus of your mission while doing so.
If you are worried that no one will appreciate what you have to offer, test it. The more you test it, the closer you will come, to finding the path to sustain it creatively and financially.
I am on that path right now, and be sure its full of rejection and dismissal; that’s always part of the test of a new venture. But if you keep testing it and you keep seeing others tell you there is a need.. then keep going brother and sister. You are on your way to true creative and financial freedom.
