Why my failed music career made me succesful

When I was around 19, I wanted to be a DJ.

It’s very original I know, but this is what I wanted to do.

I was really into EDM music and going to festivals to see my favorite artists.

Cheat Codes, The Chainsmokers, Zedd, Two Freinds, etc.

I was obsessed with them and wanted to be just like them.

They just got to make music and tour around the world playing these massive shows and just having fun.

And you bet your ass I wanted in on this.

So I did what any other aspiring artist does, I bought a DJ controller, downloaded Logic on my computer, and started looking up YouTube tutorials on how to DJ.

I spent months and months learning how to make music and how to mix, I even ended up making a couple mixes that I thought sounded amazing.

I had a new burning passion and I wanted to do this all the time now.

So I kept making mix after mix, learning music theory and trying new things out for a while.

And then one day, I just stopped.

The passion went away.

And my dreams of having a hit song with the Chainsmokers died.

Now you’re probably wondering when I get to the whole point of this story.

Well, it’s right here.

I stopped because I didn’t actually want to be a DJ.

I liked the idea of being a DJ.

I liked the idea of working with the best artists in the world.

I liked the idea of touring the world and playing music for thousands of screaming fans.

I liked the idea of winning awards for the best songs of the year.

But I hated the all the work that was involved to get to that point.

I hated spending days on a song because I couldn’t get it to sound how I wanted to.

I hated having to carry all the equipment from gig to gig just for no one to even listen to my music.

I hated that my mixes were only getting 34 plays on soundcloud.

I was in love with the end result and not the journey it took to get there.

This is a common problem I see with anyone starting a business or chasing their passion.

They see all these artists on stage living their best lives and all these entrepreneurs flexing the lambos, and the watches, and vacations.

But they don’t like all the work and thousands of hours they spend to get to that end goal.

And that’s what separates the winners from everyone else.

The person that loves the stress and all the bullshit that comes with their craft are the ones who end up winning.

The guy flying on the private jet is the same person who was willing to pull all nighters on his business and be the one to put out fires when no one else could.

They fell in love with the process and their success is a by product of that.

Shortly after quitting my dream as a DJ. I started to focus more on my media agency that I had at the time.

While I didn’t enjoy every second of it, the process of getting better and scaling was something I was addicted to.

In other words, I was in love with the journey.

Later that year I was able to scale and make enough income to pivot into my next venture.

Had I not learned my lesson from the DJ gig, I don’t think I would have been successful with the agency.

I encourage you to really ask yourself if what you’re doing is something you’re willing to suffer for.

What you’re doing right now should bring you purpose, even if it’s not fun to do all the time.

We all go through suffering, but at least we get to choose what kind we go through.

I was willing to go through the suffering of building out my agency and all the headaches that came with it.

However, I wasn’t willing to to endure the suffering to become a world famous DJ.

Everyone has their own journey and their own mountain to climb.

And while everyone wants to eventually make it to the top.

The best memories will always be made on the journey to the top.

Check out the video I made about this topic here: https://youtu.be/hxepurAII1o?si=S91Kjd7X6InpRQfo