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How To Take Your Music Career To The Next Level With A Mentor
By Tom Hess - 08/14/2012 - 12:27 AM EDT
Would you like to become a successful professional musician who works
full time in the music industry? The truth is, starting a career in
music and earning a good living doing it is a very attainable goal.
However, many musicians make the mistake of trying to build a career
into the music business with absolutely no strategy for success. As a
result, it takes them much longer to accomplish what they want with
music (if they ever do).
If you would like to start a career in music and quickly reach success
as a professional musician, it is crucial to find a mentor who has
already achieved great things in the music business. By learning about
the music industry from a professional who has already done big things,
you will be much more likely to succeed in your own music career.
To show you what I mean, think about the world famous basketball star
Michael Jordan. Even if you are not a basketball fan, it is likely that
you have heard of the incredible success that Jordan achieved throughout
his career. Over the span of about two decades, Jordan became known as
one of the best athletes ever (in any sport) as he broke countless
records, won many championships, and made A LOT of money from his player
salary (not to mention through endorsements, shoe sales, and other
means). By himself, Jordan was certainly a very talented athlete;
however, he did not make it to the top alone. In every moment of his
legendary career, Jordan continually received the advice, coaching and
training of many mentors both within basketball and outside of
basketball. As a result, he was able to take the incredible natural
ability he had to play and turn it into something truly unforgettable.
In fact, this situation is not exclusive to Michael Jordan, any athlete
who has ever achieved incredible success has always maintained
connection to a mentor even after winning major titles, awards or
medals.
Similar to Michael Jordan or any other highly successful athlete, if
your goal is to succeed in your music career, you will be able to
achieve much more by finding a mentor who can change you from a talented
amateur musician to a successful music professional. In order to find a
great mentor for your music career, it is important for you to know
what qualities you should be looking for in such a person. Here are the
top 3 qualities of a music career mentor who can help you become highly
successful:
1. Has the ability to pay attention to the small details of your
music career while also helping you to stay on track toward your
larger, long term goals.
In order to maintain success throughout your music career, you will need
to keep your biggest goals in mind with each action you take. For most
musicians, it is easy for them to become distracted in their music
careers and lose direction. This often leads them down a long and
frustrating path as they seem to be ‘doing things’ in their music
career, but in fact are not working toward what it is that they truly
want to achieve. Additionally, the majority of musicians do not
understand how to pursue their music career goals in a highly focused
manner by using an effective strategy. These musicians generally see
limited to no success and as a result are forced to work outside of the
music business.
When looking for your mentor, you must make sure that this person
understands how to build highly effective strategies to help you achieve
your music career goals as quickly as possible. With that in mind, it
is possible that even with the right strategy in place, you may still
become distracted, confused or uncertain throughout the course of your
music career. A good mentor will instantly notice subtle signs that you
are going down the wrong path, and will quickly step in to help you find
your way again.
If you have not determined specific goals for your music career yet, it is important that you do so right away. Take this music career test to get a find out specifically what you want to get out of your music career.
2. Is already highly successful in the music business, and is
able to help you solve any problems that get in the way of your music
career goals.
Starting a career in music is often a very frustrating experience for
most musicians. Although there is a great deal of information about the
music business online; most of it is intended for use by the general
music community. As a result, you may have specific questions for your
own challenges in your music career, but no specific answers to help you
deal with them. On top of that, the music industry information you find
online does not help you understand the difference between ‘useful’
information, and information that either no longer applies to most
musicians or does not apply for you in your own music career. This is
why it is absolutely essential that you find a mentor who understands
the inner workings of the music industry and has already built a
successful career by figuring these things out.
When you have access to personalized advice from someone like this, you
will quickly be able to solve any issues that arise in your music
career. This will give you the ability to approach a career in music
with a clear understanding of exactly what needs to get done in order to
reach your personal goals.
3. Has previously helped other musicians become highly successful in the music industry (and can show you the proof!)
The music industry is unique from many other industries because becoming
successful with a career in music does not require attending university
programs, receiving a degree or taking any kind of special tests. That
said, it is much easier for amateur musicians to ‘talk big’ when it
comes to their music careers. Sometimes you will come across people in
the music industry who claim to be highly successful, when in fact they
are not. As you begin looking for a music career mentor, it is very
crucial that you avoid the advice of these types of musicians and find
someone who can really back up their claims of success in the music
business.
In order to find a mentor who truly knows how to help you succeed in
your music career, look first at the success of the musicians he is
training/has trained in the past. If this person is truly a great
mentor, he will not need to tell you so. Instead, it will be obvious due
to the overwhelming amount of positive feedback given by the current
and former musicians who have worked with him. Once a great mentor has
helped many musicians achieve their musical goals, they naturally will
feel a need to voice their approval. This can be observed commonly in
the form of testimonials on your mentor’s website or in other areas
online.
As someone who has personally trained many people to become successful
professional musicians, I cannot stress enough the importance of finding
a mentor as you pursue a career in music. Fact is, I would not be where
I am today in the music business if it weren’t for the help of my
current and former mentors. Don’t make the mistake of trying to figure
everything out on your own in the music business. This is the same thing
that so many musicians do, and this is why most musicians DO NOT make
it with successful music careers. Regardless of your current experience
in the music industry, I encourage you to seek out your own music career
mentor as soon as possible so you can quickly begin reaching your full
potential for success in your music career.
Find out how you can become a successful pro musician in the music business by reading the information on this musician mentoring page.
Do you still have uncertainty about working with a mentor? Learn about
your strong and weak areas as a musician in the music business by taking
a free assessment and seeing if a music success mentor can help you get where you want to go.
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