For Easter I spent the weekend visiting family. There was a big family dinner and at some point during the evening my son, who is almost two and a half, was stacking small paint containers to make a tower. His intention was to stack them as high as he could and then watch them topple. Now these paint containers were fairly narrow, just slim cylinders, and not very stable... he had to stack them top to top and then bottom to bottom. However he would consistently stack four and on the fifth intentionally make it topple. After a while another family member joined in stacking their own tower. However, unlike my son who would simply stack up the tower the other family member would cautiously take their time so as to be sure the tower wouldn't topple. How was it that my two and a half year old son could consistently stack the tower without even stopping for a moment to consider if it was stable or not? Being the person I am, I sat there watching the whole thing, trying to analyze what was going on. My son assumes that he can just put one on top of the other and the tower will stand and he embraces the possibility of the tower tumbling. In fact it causes him extra joy when it does fall. The other family member has the experience of life that tells him to be careful when building a tower as one wrong move and the whole thing can come toppling down. He doesn't want it to fall but he knows how easy it is for that to happen.
The thought process created the outcome.
I thought if we put this into context with the music industry, how many of us start out being told that we won't succeed? That you can't make a living in the business, that you need a real job? "It's just a hobby..."
Wouldn't that be like stacking a tower of paint containers, all the while hoping it doesn't fall? More importantly, if we take the approach of a two year old, and simply believe that we can do what we set our minds out to do, we can stack our tower as high as the sky, that we can create the career that we want?
Just a thought:)
Aaron Bethune.