My two lifelong loves are history and music. I always said I would pursue both. One would become my profession and the other would be my passion.
Yesterday I got a royalty check from the two albums I recorded over a decade and half ago. The total was...
$10.05
I also got paid for doing my real job on the first. It was enough to cover my bills. I still get to play music. I still get to love music. The only thing that stops me from doing more of it is my insistence on being a good husband and father. I knew that I wasn't willing to do what was needed to do to make music my careers-- to be a multitool.
The general advice for success at anything is : work hard and be good at many things.
86% of young people want to be social influencers. 12% of young people claim that they are already social influencers. The average salary of a social influencer is $46k. In order to make more than average mid career teacher in California you need to have more than a million followers (the average salary of the top 2% of social influencers is just under $75k/year).
These aren't five year olds hoping to be astronauts. These are young adults. And the numbers for teenagers are even higher. Does anyone else see a problem with only 14% of working age young adults not wanting (or even expecting) to have a career as an internet celebrity?
Back when I was having more face-to-face interactions with young people I was shocked at how many of them said that their career plan was to post things on Instagram. I would nod and try and be enthusiastic and encouraging but in my head I was hearing, "My plan is to be a movie star, but poor. I know the odds are long but if it works out I'll be able to barely scratch out a living for a few years! I don't want to learn anything or work at anything because I want to make sure that I have nothing unique or of substance to offer."
Instead you should listen to the advice of my friend who is an actual rock star. He works hard at being the best at many things and never stops. He's lived his life with kindness and integrity and if he has a selfish bone in his body I've never seen it. The keys to success in life haven't changed. Work hard, work smart, be honest and be nice. Be a multitool.
