Your Career Success Depends on Your Willingness to Go Down With the Ship

Roger E Lear

Ask yourself this question out loud, please; “Am I willing to go down with the ship?” Did you ask the question out loud? If by chance you didn’t, you may be missing the impact of the words. So please, say it out loud. You’re not doing it for me, this is for you; “Am I willing to go down with the ship?”

Some may wonder why I am asking you a question as if you are the captain of a ship; metaphorically you are. The captain of a ship is ultimately responsible for setting the course, making the decisions and ensuring the destination is reached. If things go wrong, others might abandon the ship but to the end, the captain would stay and go down with the ship if necessary.

In this respect, you are the captain (leader) of your ship (career), making decisions which will hopefully bring you to your destination; success in whatever way you define it. You will have a crew (the team) and they will help you along the way. However, poor decisions and sometimes even great ones will cause some members of your crew to fall away, leaving you undermanned and overworked.

Will you keep going or turn back? If you ever find yourself during your career as the only one that believes in you, will you keep going? It’s easy to make bold declarations before the appearance of an opposing force, but what about the reality of it all? My hope is that you can say yes and mean it, even when under fire, because your resolve to be successful in the ridiculously competitive music industry, or any industry for that matter, is going to be tested.

Record deals may get offered and reneged on. Maybe you get signed, do an album and the album gets shelved and never released and you ultimately get dropped from the label. Some manager or agent will come to you under the guise of being an important part of your team but may show that their whole purpose was to rip you off and sabotage your opportunities.

A producer with a few credits may offer help for legitimate purposes, but after discovering your industry inexperience, decides to burn you. A song you wrote but failed to copyright (you do copyright your songs, right?) gets into the wrong hands and it becomes a money maker for someone else and you don’t even get a cut.

To make matters worse, you are legally stopped from using the song in any way unless you desire to be sued for copyright infringement. All of this and more does happen and requires effort to prevent, but the question is still; “What if it happens to you?” Do you learn from the experience, tighten your game up and keep grinding, or do you go home and get a day job?

Honestly, some questions can’t be answered until you find yourself in the situation dealing with all of the particulars and emotions therein. However, one thing is sure if you are in this game with largely superficial desires like money, fame and excess; you probably don’t have the discipline to do the work that is required to avoid the obvious pitfalls, let alone the less obvious ones.

A deep passion for your craft and a clear purpose will also provide the drive to educate oneself about the business of music which can significantly lessen the impact of the inevitable disappointments which come even to the mega-stars. Passion, clear purpose and education will soften the blows delivered in this industry, but you are going to take some shots.

Most of us have heard the statement “Get money” and know people who are solely driven for that, but if that’s all it’s about for you then there are easier legal ways of getting paid then navigating the music industry. The bottom line question is this; “Does your desire to reach your destination have the power to sustain you during the tough times?”

50 Cent said he would, “Get rich or die trying.” Poker players betting to win it all or lose it all say, “All in.” Can you answer this question with a yes; “Am I willing to go down with the ship?”

Wisdom from the Grind: Your career success depends on your willingness to go down with the ship!