TEM Coaching Tip: It's Never Too Late

The stories of the people who find success in the music business at an early age are always celebrated and amplified. This was true before social media and is exponentially more true today. There’s nothing the Facebook algorithm likes more than a 23-year-old landing a prestigious gig or someone young hitting it big.

The prevalence of posts like this can make it feel like a high percentage of people have found success early in life. In turn, this can feel quite discouraging for anyone who has not experienced that same level of success on a similar timeline.

But there are so many examples in music and across the arts of people who have not “made it” or found their true calling as artists until later in life. (“Made it” is of course in quotes because everyone gets to define what success looks like for themselves.)

The incredible Sharon Jones didn’t record her first album until after she turned 40 and didn’t find widespread success until her late forties. She left us far too early but the music she left behind has made an indelible mark on the world. If she had decided that 40 was too old to start a career in music the world would be a worse place because of it.

Similarly, the amazing Jessica Meyer (who I interviewed for TEM73) didn’t become a composer until she turned 40. In a short period of time she went from never having composed a thing to having her pieces performed all over the country to critical praise. When you hear her talk about composing, you can tell that she can’t imagine her life or career without it. And she didn’t start until she was almost 20 years into her professional career!

Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison didn’t get published until she was 39. I could fill page after page with examples just from the arts. The world is littered with examples like these women. 

Just know that we all have a voice inside of us that will tell us we are too old. Or that we are too young. Or that we are too something.

That’s just the fear talking because it’s simply not true. In my experience there’s nothing you can do to prevent that voice that’s inside us all from speaking up in the first place. And the only way to make that voice go away is by simply doing the thing it’s telling you you can’t do.

It’s never too late.

TEM Coaching Tip: It is never too late

The stories of the people who find success in the music business at an early age are always celebrated and amplified. This was true before social media and is exponentially more true today. There’s nothing the Facebook algorithm likes more than a 23-year-old landing a prestigious gig or someone young hitting it big.

The prevalence of posts like this can make it feel like a high percentage of people have found success early in life. In turn, this can feel quite discouraging for anyone who has not experienced that same level of success on a similar timeline.

But there are so many examples in music and across the arts of people who have not “made it” or found their true calling as artists until later in life. (“Made it” is of course in quotes because everyone gets to define what success looks like for themselves.)

The incredible Sharon Jones didn’t record her first album until after she turned 40 and didn’t find widespread success until her late forties. She left us far too early but the music she left behind has made an indelible mark on the world. If she had decided that 40 was too old to start a career in music the world would be a worse place because of it.

Similarly, the amazing Jessica Meyer (who I interviewed for TEM73) didn’t become a composer until she turned 40. In a short period of time she went from never having composed a thing to having her pieces performed all over the country to critical praise. When you hear her talk about composing, you can tell that she can’t imagine her life or career without it. And she didn’t start until she was almost 20 years into her professional career!

Pulitzer- and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison didn’t get published until she was 39. I could fill page after page with examples just from the arts. The world is littered with examples like these women. 

Just know that we all have a voice inside of us that will tell us we are too old. Or that we are too young. Or that we are too something.

That’s just the fear talking because it’s simply not true. In my experience there’s nothing you can do to prevent that voice that’s inside us all from speaking up in the first place. And the only way to make that voice go away is by simply doing the thing it’s telling you you can’t do.

It’s never too late.

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TEM184: If she could do it, you can too

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TEM184: If she could do it, you can too

You might not be too busy. It might just be an issue of priorities. An episode inspired by the incredible Toni Morrison.

On Today's Episode of The Entrepreneurial Musician:

• The incredible story of how Toni Morrison didn't get published until she was a 39-year-old single mother

• The story we frequently tell ourselves (we're too "busy") when it's actually just an issue of priorities

• Being okay with admitting to yourself that something isn't a top priority

Links:

• Tweet of the Week: Rachel Syme (@rachsyme)

Want to help the show? Here's a couple of ways you can do that!

1. Help me get to my next goal of $100 per episode on Patreon by pledging as little as $1 per episode to support the show: https://www.patreon.com/tempodcast.

2. My next iTunes goal is 150 ratings and 75 reviews. Take just a minute to leave a rating and review on iTunes to help me get there. Thank you!

And finally, a huge thank you to Parker Mouthpieces for providing the hosting for TEM.

Produced by Andrew Hitz

Show notes for all episodes of TEM including topics discussed, links to all books and websites referenced can be found at:

http://www.andrewhitz.com/shownotes

Tweet of the Week: Rachel Syme (@rachsyme)

This is for all of us who think we are “too busy” to accompish _________. (I’m looking at YOU, college students!)

In fairness, I’m looking at all of us, because we all fall into this trap from time to time. The trap is believing the voice in our head that says we are “too busy” to accomplish something without recognizing it for what it almost certainly is instead, an issue of priorities.

Toni Morrison was a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who had nothing to do with the writing business until she was 36. That is the opposite of having an “in” within a profession.

She wrote her first book, which wasn’t published until she turned 39, by waking up before her kids did every morning because she was a single, working mother. That’s when she could get the writing done.

Now that’s dedication.

Anyone can wake up two hours before their children and do two hours of work before they are on parent duty. Anyone.

My primary gig for the last five years has been stay-at-home dad. The time I’ve been able to devote to my podcasting, freelancing, consulting, Pedal Note Media, college teaching, private teaching, residencies, writing, recitals and everything else I’ve got going without my son present has been at a premium for over five years.

Guess how many times in those five years I woke up early enough to get hours of work done before my son woke up. Twice.

TWICE.

Why? Because being a parent is hard as hell. It is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I just didn’t have it in me to wake up that early.

But that’s okay!

I got to a place where I was at peace with my Band Director’s Guide series not having a new volume come out for years. I got to a place where I was okay that I didn’t release the TEM Podcast on a rigidly regular schedule.

The fact is I made a choice, whether intentionally or just through my actions (or lack thereof), that making those things happen wasn’t worth me trying to parent on dangerously little sleep (dangerously for my sanity!)

If anything I’ve been putting off ever rose to the level of truly urgent, I would have woken up at 4:00 am. Or quit my teaching job (which I did but then a much better one fell into my lap!) Or put my son in daycare (which we wanted to avoid if we could.) Bottom line is I would have changed something to make it work.

So the next time you tell yourself you are “too busy” to do something, think of Toni Morrison and ask whether it might just be an issue of priorities.

What an inspiration that woman was to us all. She is dearly missed.