Every time we follow through on a new venture, we can add to the pro/con lists that inform our decision-making processes, and our lives become a little (or a lot) better for the experience.įollow-through is critical. Over years of experience, we chip away at the mysteries of life, learning what things make us happy, what things make us sad what things we care about, and what things don't matter.Įvery new project - foolish, doomed, or otherwise - furthers that discovery process. We start with a tiny spark of consciousness and absolutely no idea what is going on elsewhere. If you're learning, no time is wastedįrom all this, I've realized that looking at anything ambitious as "wasted time" is a serious error. singing and playing an instrument, living in a van, wearing eyeliner). business, design, travel, challenging environments), and things I didn't like so much and/or was terrible at (e.g. Instead, that so-called "wasted" time was more of a roundabout discovery process, during which I learned about things I liked and/or was good at (e.g. In light of that, it's hard to call my musical pipe dreams "wasted time". Learning to customize my band's MySpace page started me down the path toward what I do for a living today. Credit: Jason Lengstorf The skills we learn cross over to other areasĮvery single skill I learned during my rockstar days has proven useful in other areas of my life.Ĭonvincing someone to buy an album or a t-shirt is awfully similar to selling web design or consulting services.Ĭollecting payment from a broke promoter when my options were A) I get $100 for gas money, or B) I live in Tucson now - that was a stellar crash-course on chasing down overdue invoices. What you learn for one task will also help you in others.
And despite the frustration and near-hopelessness of it, I found that I deeply enjoyed the attempt at taking an unknown, generally unimpressive entity (my emo band) and trying to get people to support us with downloads and dollars. I also learned to rely on myself each day on the road was sink or swim. Credit: Jason LengstorfĮven though I was failing to make it big as a musician, I was gaining a lot of valuable information: I liked the business part of the experience I really enjoyed designing posters and building websites I wasn't terrible at promotion and sales. One of my early design projects: a CD cover for a demo recording. Concert posters needed to be designed and printed and mailed to people - and those people needed to be convinced to hang them up around town. Equipment needed repairs and replacement.
We needed shows booked, and t-shirts made, and payments negotiated (and collected).
I wasn't just a musician I was a promoter, a manager, a designer, an accountant, and a dozen other jobs we couldn't afford to pay someone else to do for us. Trying to make it as a musician threw me into the deep end of several new skill sets. In fact, those "wasted" years were a critically important step in my early journey toward building a successful career. If that failed we'd sleep in Walmart parking lots or on sticky venue floors.Īnd yet, I would never call that time wasted. We couldn't afford hotel rooms, so we begged from the stage for living room floor space to sleep on.
#OFF WASTED YEARS FULL#
I learned that gas stations won't charge for cups full of hot water while living off about $60/month (earned by working for a week or so in a minimum wage job that I knew wouldn't call my references) and the charity of others.
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