The Myth of Meritocracy Im always hesitant to write about this sort of thing. I often wonder if Im really in any position to tell anybody how to be successful, because when I look at the numbers Im willing to admit that Ive got a long way to go. Then I think back to when I was first trying to get into the music industry, or when I first wanted to ask a girl out, or when I was trying to get my life back on track after years of hardship; I was looking to anybody to give me something to hold on to, some sort of sign that things would get better. A lot of people told me that all you have to do to succeed in life is to try hard enough, to work yourself to the bone, and that in the end all the hard work would pay off. The people I looked to as icons of success or hope told me that as long as I worked hard enough Id get better. I would be lying to you if I said that hard work is all it takes to creates success. To get what I have now, I had to work myself harder than I ever thought I could. Between a full time job in a coffee shop and taking care of myself it seemed impossible to make time for music, even harder to afford the things I thought I wanted, like a microphone or a new guitar, but I did everything in my power to make it. I worked one day less a week at the coffee shop even though I knew if I did that I could barely make rent. I bought less food even though it made me anxious and exhausted. I bought the microphone anyway because I had to try. I put every ounce of my being into doing what I do now, and without that hard work I would never be able to do what I do today. Ive had to overcome anxieties and obstacles and let go of unhealthy relationships in order to try and make this happen, but thats not all it took to get my foot in the door. Im very lucky. Anybody whos successful is very lucky, but thats the sort of thing they would never want you to believe. A person who achieves great things experiences tons of stress trying to make their dreams come true, and then it pays off. We all want to create a world in which good things come to the hardest workers, but its simply not true. Im lucky enough to have a family that would bail me out when my debit card was overdrawn. I was lucky enough to have the resources to be able to use a computer and learn to produce in the first place. I was lucky that my current manager happened to comment on a facebook status of mine, and I was lucky that he happened to entertain a conversation with me. I guess my point is that I cant promise you that youll be successful if you give it everything youve got, but I can guarantee that if you dont, theres somebody else that will skip meals and lose sleep to seize opportunities first. The people who have the things that you want arent looking to give them to just anybody; they truly believe that hard work is exclusively what got them to where they are today, and so they want to see you putting in that same effort. So give absolutely everything you have to what you care about, because the people who matter will notice. The world crushes idle dreamers and procrastinators, but if were smart, hard working, and lucky, maybe weve got a shot.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 02:28:05 +0000
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