It’s easy to decide on a career in music, but that career can quickly implode! If an implosion does happen, it can be very hard to get out of that deep of a rut in life... Just because you "decided" that you wanted to become a really great guitar player, it doesn't necessarily mean that you will have any success at it... 

Being a fantastic guitarist is something that a lot of people pursue, and that idea might work out for them, or it might not. 

You need to seriously consider whether being a guitarist /musician in your life is the best thing to focus on as a goal... 

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Playing music professionally is something that millions upon millions of people can and already do. So, is that a good goal to work toward? Or, is there maybe something else that you could be shooting for. Something still related to music and the guitar, but that is more of the "right thing" for you personally?

You’ve only got one life – you want and need to do things correctly. You want to contribute as much as you can, and build the best life you can. Remember that even the simplest most innocent mistake can really take its toll on you. That's why it's so important to always think everything through and make the best decisions.




YOUR PATH IS BUSINESS – NOT PERSONAL:
There’s a really crazy story that recently went public, about a clarinet player from Montreal Canada’s music school McGill University who gave his new girlfriend total access to all of his personal computer files, records, email - passwords.

She had everything that related to his personal business. And, when it came time for him to complete his music degree, he applied and was accepted to the University of Southern California.

However, his girlfriend became insanely jealous (that he’d be moving away), so she hi-jacked his computer and wrote the University in California declining her boyfriends, “once in a life-time offer,” to study there.

Her boyfriend eventually figured out what she had done, and so he hired a lawyer and he sued her, winning a financial settlement of $375,000 Canadian dollars, (worth about $286,000 US dollars).

But, the moral of the story is that developing toward a career path needs to be looked at as a business. In a business, you would never allow anyone full access to the company records, and the control over the security of the business.

Even your accountant and lawyers would have limited access into your personal company records. So, keep in mind that your career path – whatever you choose - is all business – its not a personal one!




HEALTH Vs. SUCCESS:
There’s an old saying in the music business that far too many young musicians will often give up their health to reach their musical goals.

“When people are young, they can lose their health to get success, and when they’re old, they’ll try and use their success to get back their health.” 

That of course is considering that they actually are successful in their career and have the money available in the future to turn their health around later in their life. Now, this is a slippery slope for musicians because we sit and /or stand in one place a lot to perfect our craft.

Whether that’s sitting or standing to practice, or staying stationary for hours on end to record at our computer work-stations, we as musicians are far too stationary, for far too long, and often times, it really catches up with musicians in their later years.

So, remember that regardless of what you do in your music career, you’ve got to focus on your health – every day - above all else your health is paramount. Never neglect it for success, that’s a huge mistake that could lead you to a point eventually where you’ll be on the fence with your health, between being able to turn things around for your health, and possibly not being able to turn things around.




YOU WILL HAVE PROBLEMS - ATTACK THEM WHEN THEY ARRIVE:
One of the really lousy things about being an entrepreneur of any kind, (and trust me – being any type of a musician is all about being incredibly entrepreneurial), is the lousy things involved with this field and the instability of it all. This business is crazy, and bad news will hit you at some point in some way!

The musician’s lifestyle is not for everybody who sets out to live it. This field actually only works for the minority who step into it. That’s why you’ll find so many musicians married to others who have really stable jobs.

Or, more common, you’ll find musicians who have tried doing the musical path through their 20’s, but into their 30’s they end up pursuing far more stable employment directions.

Sometimes, employment related to music, and other times unrelated. All of this happens because playing a musical instrument is only the means to an end. Playing a guitar isn’t the end goal of what we want out of our career, it’s only the vehicle we’ve chosen to get us where we can see ourselves in the end.

The goal isn’t to just play guitar, the goal is to make music with it and to do something creative using the guitar that will manifest a stable life. And, the highest level of where we want to get to and reach long term is to have a good life. That’s the end goal - is having a good life.

So when the problems arise, (and they will), you've got to attack them. Hit back fast and hard and crush them head on. This method is the only way to deal with problems. You need to throw down hard and nip the issues in the bud fast!




FINAL THOUGHTS:
Before I wrap things up, I wanted to just hit one last point, make one final statement, and that is this... most people probably aren’t going to listen to this advice here in this video.

And, that’s basically just human nature. The best advice is often lost. People get lost in the message, or they are stuck thinking that they can trust everybody, [like that McGill clarinet student who gave his girlfriend (of 5 min.), all access to his computer and to his email].

It's  too bad but it's true. This field of work is insane, you can’t trust everyone you meet, your health will take a beating and things are going to get stupid for you at some point.

So, remember to stay focused, and keep your cards close to your chest. Trust is earned over a very long period of time.

Also, your health… Your health is the most important thing you have, you cannot neglect it.

And, remember you are going to have massive problems hit you during your career. But, what your goal is centers around the long term establishment of a good life as a musician.

Do everything to reach the highest point on the, “Good Life,” scale as you possibly can. Maintain your health, study your music and your skills at the right rate and pace for you.

Maintain a good balance of all the other things in your life and focus on finding the right people to interact with – people who will have your best interests at heart. Those are the key factors right there.




VISIT THE WEB-SITE:
I'd like to end the discussion by saying, thanks for joining me... If you want to learn more about what I do as an online guitar teacher, then head over to my website at creativeguitarstudio.com and sign up your FREE lifetime membership.

When you want more, you can always upgrade to either a Basic, or a Premium lesson package and start studying the guitar courses I've organized for the members of my website.

Also, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on all of this in the comment section below... if you enjoyed this video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe for more. Thanks again and we'll catch up next week, for another episode of the, "Guitar Blog Insider."