I was watching the Super Bowl commercial with Drake tonight and was marveling at how well Drake acted in the spot. I had forgotten he came up as an actor before going into music.

Say what you want to say about Drake's music, but it's clear he's a great performer and entertainer.

That made me think of other artists who are extremely talented artists in seemingly every medium they seek to express themselves in.

Queen Latifah, Thought, LL leap into my mind as artists that are talented enough to be working artists in a variety of media. There are plenty of others.

Or think about Hollywood actors that come up in musicals and some even have fledgling music careers.

That made me think of the advice I would offer to my kid if he/she/they asked if music or the arts would be good to pursue.

Granted every working artist isn't a legend or a prodigy. But it sure helps. For every say Dilated Peoples (a good but not wildly popular act) there are thousands of other acts who had some talent but didn't succeed.

Maybe I'm looking at the arts as a career path with skepticism because my parents weren't artists, I didn't know any working artists growing up, and I never really considered the arts as a career. So, maybe I'm overestimating how much talent it takes to make a living.

But I still wonder what I'd tell my kid if their interest in the arts as a career outstripped their talent.

just thinking too much in my middle age.

What would you (or have you) tell your children about working in the arts?

And I say that judging the success of some of my creative peers over the last couple of decades.

It's wild seeing folks you came up with succeeding when you know you were more talented than them at some point but you quit and they stuck with it.



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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

ive spent a lifetime and a successful career in the arts
and i have never been the most talented guy in the room
not in art school, not at most of my jobs
but you work hard, you learn, you dedicate yourself, you have passion and you never make the same mistake twice...with that MO anyone can make a run at something
talent only gets you so far to begin with anyway - less "talented" people outhustle cats who rely too much on their gifts every day.

Even if someone had remarkable talent, in order to carve out a career, you have to be willing to do the boring, sometimes mundane and tedious work to make great art.

"you never make the same mistake twice".

Low key genius advice. I worked with this director who is super talented but isn't very collaborative. Has it stuck in his mind he has to be a one-man auteur and do everything himself. As talented as he is, it hurts him from reaching a certain level.

After years of not working with him I tried to work with him again thinking he probably has matured and it was the same thing!

Everyone sucks and make tons of mistakes at the beginning but if you are actively learning from your mistakes and growing then you are bound to get a lot better.





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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

its always weird to me when the general public believes an artist has to be rich in order to believe they are successful'
I'm friends with a couple artist who I love and they make as much as me and they seem to be happy

Like I said, I didn't know anyone who was a working artist, so the only options I saw were to be a teacher, a star, or a struggling artist. So you're right that there are plenty of people who carve out a good living working in the arts.

Knowing what I know now about business and life, in general, is that maybe taking my interest in film scoring when I was much younger and making a go of it would have been worth it. It seems more stable than working in tech. Ha!

Like I meet working artist all the time with cool jobs doing cool stuff and it surprising me whenever I meet any artist who doesn't fit into the three buckets you describe. I wonder to what extent you can do that outside of LA and NYC.



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"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"