5 Principles to Improve to
Your Music Career ...

You want to develop your own music career and have many people appreciate your music. This will be a quite a goal to achieve...

You can overcome many obstacles between you and the achievement of your career goals when you understand and apply the key principles below.

You can apply these principles to your situation to get to where you want to be with your music career with less effort.

1 - The 80/20 Principle

"The 80/20 principle - that 80 percent of result flow from just 20 per cent of the causes - is the one true principle of highly effective people." - Richard Koch

This principle shows that about 20% of the things you do creates 80% of the results you get.

It also means that of all the things you could know about a subject, only 20% are things you NEED to know.

You have to put this principle into practice just to be able to cope with the amount of things you need to do to create the music, business and life you want.

Always look for the 20% you MUST know and do in order to achieve the artistic, business and music career goals you set.

2 - The Principle of Perpetual Improvement

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists." - Eric Hoffer

Technology changes on a constant basis and so do musical trends. You can stay ahead of the curve when you adopt the attitude of the eternal student.

You apply this principle to your music career when you learn more of the main skills you need, or when you refine the skills and knowledge you have.

Figure out what you need to know and do, then learn how to do it.

You can never improve your music and business skills enough!

3 - The Principle of the Slash

"First of all, I choose the great roles, and if none of these come, I choose the mediocre ones, and if they don't come, I choose the ones that pay the rent." - Michael Caine

You want to be a generalist, in other words, you want to do many things very good rather than just one thing excellently.

The Slash refers to the slashes between the various roles you may play in your music career. I got the idea of the Slash from Marci Alboher.

For example you may be...

Artist/Engineer/Producer/Entrepreneur/Marketer/Promoter etc.

This principle asks you to be aware of the various roles you play and to be comfortable with them. You don't need to know everything there is to know about each of these roles. See principle 1. ;-)

You simply want to know enough about each to get things done and move on to the next project.

4 - The Principle of Automated Business Income

"I think the person who takes a job in order to live - that is to say, for the money - has turned himself into a slave." - Joseph Campbell

You don't want a full-time job as it limits your time, energy and income ability, which means less time for your music.

You want to therefore create the income you need to cover your expenses with business structures which require much less time to maintain than a job.

You can do this by transforming your knowledge or expertise into a niche content web site. You will then have various opportunities to monetize your activities in such a way that you replace your job income.

The Renegade Route...

I suggest just two steps to create your own web business.

1) Watch the SBI! Video Action Guide to understand how to build a business on the web.

2) Get yourself an SBI! subscription and build your own web based business based on the steps outlined in the above Action Guide.

You will, when you follow all the above steps with care...

... create your own income and equity with web businesses based on your passion just like me.

I must warn you to be prepared to work. You won't find a magic-bullet-get-rich-quick-scheme here.

You will however have all you need to build a viable business, all in one place. You get the process, the domain, the hosting, the research, design and publishing tools, the support and the community. All this you get with the above step 2.

You should not do this unless you are determined to make it work or don't have any passion. Business success of any kind takes passion, persistence and patience.

I'm sincere when I say you won't find a better way to create income based on your own passions. I hate to see great musicians and producers work at irrelevant day jobs.

I hope you will out of respect for your music career and your own potential at least research the above suggestions and decide for yourself.

5 - The Principle of the Fittest

"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." - Charles Darwin

You know the law of the survival of the fittest.

You will need to be the fittest!

No, not physically (though this too is important!).

You want to be light on your feet and ready to make changes to your plans very quickly.

You can only deal with the amount of change you face when you are able to quickly adapt to new information and situations.

How do you apply this? Well, you start by applying each of the first 4 principles more and more to your life.

You'll find that when you use the 80/20 principle, perpetual improvement, the Slash and automated income principle you become better suited to deal with change.

You will therefore grow into the "fittest" with focus and discipline.

In other words, do your thing even when your situation is rough because you're getting better and stronger.

Here's to the success of your music career!

Marius van Dyk

Next: The Way of The Renegade...


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