I spend most of my days now thinking up various plans and schemes to act as my 'get out of jail' card. Some sort of plan to not only make my lifestyle a bit more pleasing but to also provide a liveable income. As sad as it sounds, that seems to be my main goal in life right now; to work at and have money coming in through something that I am happy to do.
Lets face it, I'm never going to be wealthy. I am guessing I am never going to even be financially comfortable. I just want to be able to scrape by, providing for myself, doing what I want to do.
Working for Wal-Mart has been very destructive to my life and my personality, but one good thing to come out of it has been the massive spurt of motivation it has gave me to get up and do something with myself. I have been taking risks I'd never have dreamt of doing considering how neurotic and overly cautious I naturally am.
Pooling all my resources together and working hard at doing so is the main agenda. I really, REALLY hope this doesn't turn out to be yet another thing which I think and talk a lot about but never seem to materialise. I am determined to make things actually come to light this time.
I have worked so hard over this last 5 years achieving the highest level possible from a HND in Music Production a BSc degree in Music Technology. I think these are great qualification to have to back myself up in doing what I want to do. Theres a lot of people out there trying to start up recording studios with no prior education or proper qualifications, so why can't I try it and make the most of these skills?
All I really need to do is find a new house with 3 bedrooms and start advertising. Since I've started in Wal-Mart I've basically spent all of every pay cheque on the best pro studio equipment I can find. It is very scary, and its the start of the 'risk taking'. But it has felt good, it has felt really good actually starting to do something about it all rather than just talk about it and think about it. At least now that I am gathering 1000's of £ worth of equipment I am having more and more motivation and push to do something with it.
I must say, I am actually getting very excited. Its scary, its very high risk, but its thrilling. Its thrilling to think about actually properly doing my own thing. It keeps me going through the days of working in that hell-hole stacking potatoes and bananas all day. I just day dream about starting up, things I could buy for the studio with my next pay cheque etc. Without this, I'd be on a downward spiral of depression. Its some kind of light at the end of the tunnel for me. Even if eventually I find it didn't work out, I at least will be able to say I tried it this time.
I know of some people scraping by through just recording the occasional band, I know of others scraping by through playing the occasional gig. I'm going to try to combine the two. I have also been working hard on starting up a little pub band. This is not playing for pleasure like I have done in the past, this is playing for cash. So yea, its pretty much selling out, playing the big cheesy hits everyone wants to hear. But hey, at least I will be getting paid for playing guitar, even if the music is shit. That's a lot better than stacking bananas!
So as optimistic as it sounds, the plan is to start a recording studio, play gigs for cash, and perhaps start offering guitar lessons again like I used to do. If I get at least a band to record per month, a gig every two weeks, and a guitar lesson session per week... It should be enough to scrape by. I will, of course, have the benefit of having my girlfriend to share the burden of paying for the bills. Without her, and her support for letting me squander all my cash on this, it wouldn't have been possible. I really appreciate how un-materialistic she is. She really doesn't care that I am now always broke and never have money to spend on her. Low maintenance all the way!
Generally I'd be much too scared to take any of these risks, and much too intimidated by the established competition out there. But again, perhaps that is the only silver lining of currently working in such a crap job.
Also, the other positive thing is that I have been getting more hours offered to me by what I consider my 'proper job'. The theatre I am employed by has asked me in a few times for sound tech. work. Its been great doing some relevant work for a change. Thats another thing, while implementing my plan - I will hopefully also be getting more hours working there too, which will help a lot. Come February they will have lost a full time employee who is there on a 6 month training program. Once that happens I hope for more work to roll my way. It will be welcomed.
COME ON THE PLAN ! ! !
