I'm sure this is a topic that's every musician thinks about from time to time.
In the 47 years of staying on this planet, there have been a couple of drastic experiences in my life. The last one happened 11 years ago when I left my home country and started a new life in Switzerland from scratch. I consider it as the best decision I ever made, which demanded a lot of my strength and energy. And now another change is approaching that will have a similar impact.
As I'm sure some of you know, I currently work a full-time job as an event and marketing manager. I like the job, colleagues and my employer. However, I have been dreaming of doing something else for many, many years - and that is making a living out of music.
Music means a lot to me, it´s part of my daily life, I spend all my free time with it and the older I get, the more I want to make my dream come true.
Everything falls finally in place
And now it finally starts :) This month I reduced my workload to 90%, and by March 2023 it will go down further to finally 60%. That means, I will have 2 days a week to be creative!
Now friends and family keep asking for reasons. Well, of course. I want to spend more time making music! I've been involved with this for over 25 years; on a more ambitious level for about 5 years now. I love art, I love design, I studied graphic design, painted a lot during this time and creative things always makes me happy.
I found a partner who is an artist himself. We love to work together on projects and it's lovely to see that we have a lot of things in common when it comes to art understanding (well, sometimes it's also hard LOL).
All of this made me feel that NOW is finally the time that everything falls in place and that I should gather my courage once again and dare to make my big dream come true.
My goals and motivations
Now. I have to say, that my main goal of going this way is NOT to make my entire life with making music or teaching. In first place, I want to escape from the grid where we all are locked in, live my creativity and use my limited time on earth to fill it with things I really love.
And THEN comes the money. I have to pay my bills as well :)
I have seen people who were full of ideas and they had so many big plans for their lives that unfortunately never became reality because they succumbed to diseases in their early years. We don't know what's going to happen to us.
I just don't want to grow old and I never tried. That's my main motivation.
Riscs
No risc, no fun. Now such a step brings many aspects to the table that want to be considered. Fortunately, I have neither children nor financial obligations to meet, so I have little to consider in this regard.
I also have my partner on my side in this venture. If that were not the case, we would have a big problem - but fortunately he is also active in the artistic field and he is a big mental supporter.
And I'm realistic on the financial aspect - I will go for all in for 1 year and then I gonna decide if it was a good decision or not. Maybe I earn not enough money with that little 60% income. Maybe the concept I'm developing to earn money doesn't work at all. Who knows.
Financial aspects
On the financial side, of course, reducing work time comes along with a significant loss of income. I was already self-employed as a graphic designer and teacher for several years, so I can draw on quite a bit of experience here. Unfortunately, these years after my studies were not very successful, which is why I am extremely cautious and will never again generate my entire income from self-employment.
That's why I saved up some money to fill the financial gap that will appear. This will help me during the first 12 months until I hopefully generate some income with my music business.
What's your opinion? Have you ever concidered to go a similar way? I'm super curious about your thoughts. Leave them in the comments below!
BTW - while I write these lines, I'm listening to Stephan Bodzin´s Album "Boavista" :) Such a masterpiece. A musician in his best years doing such wonderful tracks. Wonderful.