4 min read – by Boran Zaza
This is the final part of a four-part series named “Entrepreneurship in Classical Music.”
Do not follow your dream.
I insist, and here is why.
A few days ago, I stumbled upon a documentary called “Peaceful Measures”, which I highly recommend for you to watch – it’s only 11 minutes long. “Peaceful Measures” follows Iraqi classical musicians through a Summer Program that brought high-quality music education to places in the world where it was not accessible.
In the video, you see 16 years old me (yeap, indeed me), who lived in Iraq at the time, just started to speak English, and had never traveled outside the middle east just yet.
“I saw a piano for the first time when I was ten years old. When I touched it, I realized that this is what I’m supposed to do for the rest of my life”, I said.
Dreams from childhood
For some reason, we ask children what their dream career is when they are 7 or 8 years old, and we expect them to know exactly what they want to become. It is often a career that you can describe in one word: “I want to be a fireman. Or a teacher, a pilot, a pharmacist, a doctor.
I want to be a pianist. A singer. A composer.
We tend to hold children accountable for their dream, and in some disciplines like classical music, you really need to invest a lot of your time and energy from a young age to pursue it! So if the child seems to be progressing well, then we naturally expect them to keep going, to keep following their dream.
Dreams evolve
When I touched that piano when I was ten years old, I never thought that one day, I would end up saying: “Hi! My name is Boran Zaza, and I’m a Marketing & Box Office Manager of an orchestra, and also an Executive Director of a concert series”. As a child, I could never, ever conceive of an elaborate dream like that (And let me tell you, my career right now is already way beyond my wildest dreams). That being said, I had to follow my piano dream to achieve all of this. I had to develop as a musician to get into the arts administration milieu. However, I had to develop other skills as well, other passions of mine, that I would not have had the time to establish if I stuck to my “dream” of being a pianist.
Isn’t it crazy?
Sometimes, we’re talked into LIMITING our other passions, our other dreams, to pursue something we decided as a kid – simply because we did not have the knowledge we have as adults to make a more informed “decision”.
Moral of the story?
Stop following your dream for a second. Revisit your dream and evaluate it, think of all the skills you have, and come up with a new dream that brings together all the strengths you have as a grown human being.
Waking up to reality
The truth is, a career in classical music is never as simple as just practicing your instrument. Our society and our educational system are built in such a twisted way to make you believe that if you spend countless hours practicing, you will be getting somewhere. Someone will discover you, and you’ll somehow become famous and make a living.
Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works.
I’ve watched many AMAZING musicians spending their days in that practice room because that’s what they’ve always been told to do. However, something they weren’t told was that they needed to have a presence and establish connections. No one instructed them to dress nicely to an audition or a concert. Case in point: I’ve seen many musicians go on stage with wrinkled clothes with holes in them, all the while wearing their huge winter boots. On the other side, I’ve also seen musicians dress in completely inappropriate outfits. For the life of me, unless you’re as great a musician as Yuja Wang, please don’t permit yourself to do that! Musicians don’t realize that playing well is just a mere piece of the puzzle of a successful artist’s career.
Be clear on where you currently are
Ask yourself: Is becoming a violinist truly the thing you want? Well, then you’d better develop the following skills in addition to your violin playing: social intelligence, grant writing, social media, leadership, sense of fashion, stage presence, project building, etc.
Fear not if some of those skills seem foreign to you! Google is there to help you out (check out part 3 of my series). All of those are skills that can be developed if you are willing!
On the other hand, do a lot of these skills seem to not be your cup of tea at all – and you feel that you are not willing to develop them?
Then maybe you don’t want to become a performer!
Use your talents
That’s okay – and this doesn’t mean that you studied music “for nothing”. It means that you need to have an honest conversation with yourself, and ask the following question: “What am I good at besides playing my instrument? What other skills or potential do I have?”.
Is your other skill photography? Well, then maybe you can consider a new dream of becoming a classical concert and artist portrait photographer!
Are you into the violin and also into coding? Well, maybe your dream would be to become a web developer, and you may be the person who builds the next best networking app for classical musicians!
Remember that your education in classical music did not only teach you how to play an instrument! It also taught you many other valuable skills and virtues: patience, hard work, attention to detail, ability to work under pressure, logical thinking, etc. the list goes on. Being aware of those skills can be crucial when considering revisiting your dream.
You are a unique, complex being with many talents and skills. You will only be able to find your Niche if you allow yourself to explore your full potential, develop your various skills, accept what’s unique about you, and nurture it.
Do not follow your dream.
Revisit your dream with the knowledge you have today of both yourself and of life in general, and create a brand new one that fits the “you” of today.