Hobby --> Career

This is my eventual hope. I spent 23 years active in the Army, earned a Bachelors and a couple of Masters degrees in healthcare and I live a very comfortable life. Music has always been my passion (I don't call it a hobby, it's much more important than that to me), and I'm using my GI Bill to earn a production/composition degree from Berklee. My hope is to gradually start working in music and maybe someday to a level that will allow me to quit my full time job. Even if I never earn a dime in music, I'll still be fully engaged every day because it's what I love, but the dream scenario would be working in something production and composition related full time.
 
I got a masters in professional counseling. I tried doing therapy for a bit and I feel I was good at it. Unfortunately I got tired of the crisis and drama that comes with it. The pay is horrible too, some counsellors start at 28k here in nm. I was offered a job from one of the biggest mco. I'm very happy, it's a lot of paper work though but I get to work from home. I travel about 2-3 times a week to Santa Fe and I'm part of an amazing team at work.

I've always been Nervous and scared to try to make a profit in music. I've been stuck in the ignorant mentality that the only way to make money is to be a rock star haha. I honestly have no interest in that anymore. I'm happy having a beautiful wife and a crazy pup.

My goal is to one day hit the 6 figure area. As I've been maturing ( highly debatable haha) I realize to even though there's a correlation between money and happiness its not the only thing.
 
Edrod said:
As I've been maturing ( highly debatable haha) I realize to even though there's a correlation between money and happiness its not the only thing.
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So true.. but it really helps. If one is financially secure - and by that I mean something like one not needing to gig Sat night to make $100+ to put toward the utility bills - it opens up a lot of other options and frees one up to be able to pursue those things that can truly make you happy.
 
s0c9 said:
So true.. but it really helps. If one is financially secure - and by that I mean something like one not needing to gig Sat night to make $100+ to put toward the utility bills - it opens up a lot of other options and frees one up to be able to pursue those things that can truly make you happy.
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I agree, I think the problem is that people go with the mentality that when I get rich I'll be happy. This is completely inaccurate in my humble opinion. I think that if you're happy from the start and you finally meet your "financial goals", it will open a lot of windows. You will experience fun, happiness, and more amazing things.

My father in law is a workaholic and makes a load of money. Money I can't even dream of having. Unfortunately I don't see him being much happy. He's always tired, many health issues, saves too much, and main focus is retirement.

The way I see is, I get its smart to safe some money for emergencies and retirement. My logic is that it will never be my priority. Why do I want to save so much, so I can save for a better wheelchair? Haha

I rather enjoy my time at the moment while I'm young, sexy, and somehow my wife continues to sexy time me haha jk
But seriously
 
A certain level of income is stress reducing in the sense that you don't live paycheck to paycheck and you don't spend time worrying too much about the budget. After a certain level, though, more money won't make you happier. All the facets of music make me happy, some of them are essentially free, some of them cost money (gear, cds, concerts). I could still be happy in music on a smaller budget, but it's true that being able to afford some more expensive music related things has made me happy.
 
I did exactly the opposite. Worked as a pro until age 30. Wanted to settle down and raise a family. Wife and I celebrated 41 years of wedded bliss this year. Kids are grown and no have grandson. Would not trade it for the world. Still play music but now I can afford stuff like... wait for it... Fractal gear.
 
I went to school for psychology for 2 years with the goal of becoming a mental health professional. Had some insane curveballs that life threw my way with a near death experience on a plane and a month long stint in the hospital in a city I'd never been in. (Missed my connecting flight in Phoenix).

Realized life was too short to do something you didn't love.

Got out of the hospital, saved up some money working for Fedex. Threw a Marshall, a Les Paul and a laptop in my car and moved to LA 6 months later. 12 years later...I've been a full time musician ever since. I live in a house, make a decent living, bills are paid, bought a new car last year and have gotten to play and work with my heroes.

Wouldn't trade my career for anything in the world.
 
RoshRoslin said:
I went to school for psychology for 2 years with the goal of becoming a mental health professional. Had some insane curveballs that life threw my way with a near death experience on a plane and a month long stint in the hospital in a city I'd never been in. (Missed my connecting flight in Phoenix).

Realized life was too short to do something you didn't love.

Got out of the hospital, saved up some money working for Fedex. Threw a Marshall, a Les Paul and a laptop in my car and moved to LA 6 months later. 12 years later...I've been a full time musician ever since. I live in a house, make a decent living, bills are paid, bought a new car last year and have gotten to play and work with my heroes.

Wouldn't trade my career for anything in the world.
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That's an awesome story to tell in school! ;)

Edrod said:
My father in law is a workaholic and makes a load of money. Money I can't even dream of having. Unfortunately I don't see him being much happy. He's always tired, many health issues, saves too much, and main focus is retirement.
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I don't see the issue of your father in any way related to his financial situation. He clearly lives for his job, regardless of the money involved.
Looks like he is a victim of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle in which a dedicated person rose beyond his capability.

You can have a very good income on your actual position and do away with all the stress and responsibility messing up your life by going backwards. It's just that this requires a lot of personal insight to realize that you just went one step too far, which is why so many people suffer from burn-out.


Think about this: have you ever heard of a person asking his superior for a promotion? Yes? Then, have you ever heard of a person asking his superior for a demotion?
 
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Zwiebelchen said:
Looks like he is a victim of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle in which a dedicated person rose beyond his capability.

You can have a very good income on your actual position and do away with all the stress and responsibility messing up your life by going backwards. It's just that this requires a lot of personal insight to realize that you just went one step too far, which is why so many people suffer from burn-out.


Think about this: have you ever heard of a person asking his superior for a promotion? Yes? Then, have you ever heard of a person asking his superior for a demotion?
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This is the most thought provoking thing I've read in a while. Thanks for that.

I was familiar with the Peter Principal, not to mention the Dilbert Principal. But I never considered that situation from an employee's POV. I've known and worked with plenty of miserable, stressed out and yes, incompetent managers.

One time my miserable boss got demoted down to my peer level, after many years in the supervisor role. They could have fired him, but they offered him the lower level job if he wanted it. He was probably embarrassed and all that, everyone thought he'd quit and seek out another supervisor job elsewhere. After all, people are programmed to only seek promotion, climb the ladder higher... right? But he took a week off to think about it, then came back to work. It completely changed him for the better. After a short time he was happy, stress free and started to enjoy work again.

Why NOT take a step DOWN the ladder? Makes a lot of sense.
 
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