Hello Tribe of good intent
On this chapter I would like to talk about the importance of working with hard determination for any project you want to see succeed, because there is no way of building something solid in your life without going through some stages in life that in the future will give you the emotional intelligence to deal with the setbacks in life.
I will also take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been following along on this blog and that has read Chapter 1 & 2, thank you for the positive comments. It's very gratifying to know that you are learning something that can improve your life. To those who are not reading but only making negative comments I would ask that my readers would remind them of the phrase "if you have nothing good to say, nothing to add value to someone or something, it's simply best to remain quiet"
Let's carry on, Tribe of good intent.
Continuing the story...
On the last chapter I talked about the important aspect of knowing how to value your work, so I'm going to continue talking from that time in my life between 13 and 15 which was without a doubt the most important years of my career.
I say this because in that stage many people spend their time going to bars with their friends to drink among other non productive things, in the future this time spent will become more expensive to those who did not know how to take advantage of it.
Instead of wasting my time, I spent it working making my own money and stopped depending on my father for income when I was only thirteen and I must confess that was fantastic, imagine at that time I was able to make between 200-300 Dollars a week by the time I was getting close to 14 years of age. This led to me becoming very independent early on and of course some of the money I made I would spend buying a meal for a friend, they would receive an allowance from their parents and by the tenth day they would be without money, this was not a big expense of course but this would reinforce the importance of being independent and it gave me a lot of joy to be able to share my small success even if it was in the shape of sandwich, lol.
A small digression...
I was born to a middle class home, emphasis on middle. My father never had money to spend on things that were not necessary. I went to public schools and was friends with many that had a lot less than us. Some of them lived in Favelas (Brazilian Ghettos) more than the respect my parents taught me to have for everyone, I am grateful I had a chance to have friends from the Favelas. I always played soccer in the favelas and never had an issue with violence, much to the opposite, in the favelas there is a type of code, their own law where respect is very important, I would give the advice to someone who has never been to a poor place like this to visit one, so that they can learn to give value to what they have and more respect for the people.
This is something very powerful for you all
"Respect is the fundamental base for everything in life, inside this word there are other elements like honestly, character, discipline, love and peace among others"
"Respect is on the top of the Pyramid in the attitudes of a human being, maybe even on wild animals"
Going back to the bars and the nights of Sao Paulo, at this stage I was working really hard at night and started to gig 5 nights a week leaving the bars around 4am every morning, taking public transportation and then straight to school. Leaving school I would go home to study instruments, I would sleep very little and there were some days I missed of school to study more music. I did not however flunk a year of school, but that has to do with some administration things I will talk about in another chapter.
By playing in many places I started to expand my musical knowledge because I was spending a lot of time with musicians that played different styles and it was at that time without even knowing what it meant that I started to expand my network, and you can believe what I'm about to say.
"To grow your network is one of the keys to triumph in life"
I met many people and obviously they were all grownups, to be honest now I don't think it was the best place to be for a 14 year old. After meeting many people many opportunities started to show up in my musical career. I started to be invited to play in party bands that paid a lot more than the usual night gigs and also bands that had their own original material and where already on their way to success, being signed with labels, etc...
I was playing with 4 bands at the same time, my life was complete craziness and I can say that physically I was very tired all the time, but that never bothered me, being tired physically tired it's the best feeling there is. What I am trying to say trying to say is that if we are physically tired we can always sleep and you can be ready for the next day, but being mentally tired can destroy you from within.
"Never complain about being physically tired because you worked really hard, but if you are constantly mentally tired, it's best to switch your activities"
I know that many times in life we have to do things we don't like to survive, its part of life and I had to as well, but I will leave that part of the story for another chapter, but to make a good analogy it can be like you having to eat something you don't like that your body needs or even the only thing there is to eat. For that I am also grateful to my parents that made me eat everything, it times of need you will have to take what live provides and that's it.
And without even knowing I learned a lesson on this journey that I will share with you.
"All successful people sometimes have to do things they don't like but need to do, so that one day they can earn the right to do what they like"
It's because of this that I can guarantee you all that if you work hard, nights with no sleep, being tired physically or even mentally if you are still young or if you have a son in this stage of like, take advantage of the now or have your son do so, dispose your time to be spent in productive activities and I can guarantee you will reap the benefits in the future.
I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter vry much, on the next chapter I will talk about how I built my network and how working hard and being tired led me to getting my first contract with a major record label.
I will see you then...
Much regards, success to you all
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