Let’s say there are 1,000,000,000 Musicians out there.

That’s a good number that we can all imagine, right? These days it doesn’t seem unlikely that it’s 1 out of 7 people. Maybe it’s even more than that.

For this example, a musician is a person who went through the trouble of acquiring an instrument and “wants to be a musician.”

• How many of those will take lessons?
• How many of those will practice every day?
• How many of those will develop the dexterity required to not give up in the first month?
• How many of those will study music theory?
• How many of those will learn how to write a song?
• How many of those will learn how to work with other people?
• How many of those will figure out to play for the arrangement / mix?
• How many of those will learn how to present themselves and entertain an audience?
• How many of those will learn how to tell a story / make an important statement with music, instead of just playing notes?
• How many of those will learn about the business end of things?
• How many of those will actively work to support themselves financially with music?
• How many of those will re-locate themselves to a strategic geographical area like New York, Los Angeles, or Nashville?
• How many of those will surround themselves with and learn from others who have succeeded, instead of spending all their time with people who haven’t?
• How many of those will avoid drugs, alcohol, and other health-destructive behavior?
• How many of those are willing to sacrifice everything else to be the best at what they do?
• How many of those will be able to handle 10-20 years of utter failure, financial hardship, and obscurity — even while doing everything listed above?
• How many of those will actually somehow succeed in the music business and still remember why they started?
• How many of those will even be able to stand listening to (much less creating) music after all that?

That doesn’t include anything that happens by chance, both good and bad.

See, that thins it out. You shouldn’t feel intimidated. As I said, there is no competition in the music business. Only two or three people have figured all of these things out, which are actually common knowledge combined with common sense. Plenty of room for you! It’s mostly a lot of wannabes.

But do you still “wannabe” a musician?

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