You got to continue on the journey. Regardless of whether or not the people around you see your vision. It’s not for them to see. See, it’s not always about where you end up. It’s about the experiences, good or bad, that you pick up along the way. The people you meet while traveling on that journey.
Sure, there’s no guarantee that your destination will be the same as you pictured it when you started, but for the successful, it seldom is. Some of the biggest moguls in hip hop today started out as background dancers and hype men. Most of them had no idea that they’d end up where they are today. During that journey they probably discovered that they were better businessmen than entertainers or better producers than rappers. My point is that they would have never discovered it if they had allowed the voices of the haters to infect their belief in themselves and given up.
I started out as an MC. Later I wanted to learn guitar, so I did. Soon after I became fascinated with beats, so I learned a few other instruments, became a producer, and started making a living recording artists and producing music for television. A few years ago I became fascinated with the power of blogging, so I started one. I had no real experience with writing and wasn’t a former writer from a magazine, but I didn’t let that stop me from moving forward. I even taught myself how to produce a comic strip while doing it all. Take a look at my first comic. It looks like shit. You have to force yourself to get out of your comfort zone. It’s usually the best way to discover something new about yourself.
With this blog I just started to share some of the knowledge that I continue to pick up on my journey and discovered that it resonates with some of you. Along with that, I try to expose some good hip hop music submitted here even though it difficult to get to it all. But I tell artists to not wait for blogs, magazines, and DJs to validate you. They’ll rarely expose you regularly enough for it to stick in the minds of their audiences. That’s why I often encourage artists to start blogs of their own and find alternate ways of building a buzz. It cost a little to no money to start a blog. You must have a passion to do it or everyone will know it when they visit it.
I continue to earn some extra income helping artists and businesses build their blogs. It was never in my plan but like I said earlier, your journey is never predictable. You’ll discover that the things you learn and some of the people you meet along the way later become more valuable than you ever could have imagined.
That’s why you must continue to push towards it. Life is filled with obstacles to filter out those who quit easily. Read the stories of those achieving their dreams. They are never the same. Except for the fact that giving up on their dreams was never an option.
“I’d rather have a life of ‘oh wells’ than ‘what ifs’.” – Unknown
Stay on the grind!
