Monday Musings: Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Entrepreneurship, composing and survival.

Ever wonder why some people succeed and others don’t? In the past pathways to success were well defined and thus can be navigated. As it was when Henry Ford created the assembly line, finding your pathway to success today it is not so simple. 

Navigating through life and music can be viewed as a continual decision making process—constantly choosing between different options. But how do we determine which choice to make?

There are no rules. Most of us rely on our intuition to help guide us based upon past successes and failures thinking that what has worked in the past will work again. But what if the rules change in the middle of the game?

If our goal is stay in the game (survival) both our attitude and our perception has to change to meet the challenges as we face them. We must change our expectations and goals to stay inline with life as it is—not as it was. Why is that so difficult?

Conditioned responses are very difficult to change. The good news is that it is not impossible. The challenge is to not only be a participant in your life but also an observer. If you make the commitment to being brutally honest with yourself you can apply the problem solving skills you have developed in your creative life and intuition . Here are some steps that helped me:

     1-   Accepting that my previous life no longer exists- and to pursue the future using previous models will not move my life forward.

     2-   Doing a personal SWOT Analysis

     3-   Keeping abreast of leading trends.

     4-   Creating a strategy based on what you have learned.

Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

As we move away from 20^th century business practices (mass marketing, media, broadcasting) we will no longer have one or two careers in our lives. We will be forced to adapt from one career to the next as the world around us changes. Uncertainty is the new norm but it need not be overwhelming.

The good news in all of this is that the creative individual has an enormous advantage. The creative individual constantly reassesses and evaluates situations and opportunities.  Who better to define the future than the creative individual?

What is the best news?

If a strategy doesn’t work, let it go and start over. The only person holding you back is yourself.