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Journey from School -> Music -> Fastlane & back again

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GoalDigger

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
4
Location
Pittsburgh
I guess you guys want to know what I mean by this, right?

Well let me explain my story up until now to shed a little light on that. I started off as one of those suckers who initially bought into the 9-5 dream after high school. I had it all planned out. I was going to be coming out of school making 6 figures, have a nice place, and be happy working for the rest of my life while abusing the phrase TGIF!!!

Fortunately I turned my thought process around within a year of college. I found myself spending most of my free time (which wasn’t much) making songs with GarageBand on my friend’s macbook. My friends starting digging the tracks and ideas began to run through my head about taking my music seriously. I had read success stories of guys close to my age like Avicii and Alesso, and I was motivated! So I bought myself the essentials for making music on my own computer. Over the next couple of years I tinkered on the software making what felt like minimal progress. My problem was that I kept getting annoyed with the process of learning how to use everything. I JUST WANTED TO MAKE MUSIC!!!

Meanwhile, I still never let go of school. It was too hard for me to pass up a fall-back that guaranteed 6 figures when I was done! To be honest I would like to see how many people would actually give that up? Unfortunately my grades suffered and I was continually on the brink of failing classes. My stress was at an all time high and I realized that I needed to make a change and make it fast!

At this point I was 4 years in with only 2 years left for my ‘doctorate’. Although, this is when my music was starting to pick up and things were finally clicking. So I had two options. I could either stick it out and finish up my time in school, or I could give it all up to pursue my dream alongside thousands of other DJ/producer hopefuls.

Luckily this was also the same time that my friend had told me to read TMF! Holy shit was it life changing!!! It helped me realize that it would be stupid to turn my passion into a sole source of money. Especially when you consider the fact that I had enough in student loans to buy an Aston Martin! There were numerous days that I got frustrated with my music and wanted to give it up forever! I don’t think that I could make quality music knowing that if it didn’t sell I wouldn’t be eating for a week :(

Now I am in my 5th year and starting a new path. No, I didn’t give up school and I don’t need to. There have been plenty of successful businesses built by students in their dorm rooms. I am also not giving up my dream of becoming a successful DJ/producer. However, I have halted my music producing and DJing for the time being. I realize that building a business while in school is no easy feat. So I will pick this back up once I have built enough income to retire and spend my free time on what I love!

I am pumped to be a part of this awesome community! I will be sharing stories of my own failures very soon. I know it’s not the most exciting aspect of being an entrepreneur, but I think that it will help newbies (like myself) learn from the processes of TAKING ACTION!! :)
 
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