On Music, Anxiety, and the Impossible

Imagine for a second, how rich you would be if you’d invented books. That sounds amazing, right?

Because everyone knows Johannes Gutenberg went to his deathbed deeply in debt, with his life’s work (as the inventor of the printing press) impounded by creditors.

…oh, you didn’t know that?

The actual fortune in Gutenberg’s work didn’t actually lie in the manufacture of books or the presses that created them, but in the distribution of the material. Gutenberg failed in his lifetime because, while he could print books, couldn’t share them far and wide effectively.

That all changed when printing made its way down to Italy, where seafaring sailors would buy up multiple copies of books with the intent to both have them aboard and sell them in other faraway lands.

This teaches us a big lesson in that the making of a thing isn’t necessarily where its greatest value lies, but in the sharing of the thing. That’s why I’m going to share with you three books that have vastly affected my life, as I believe sharing their ideas will be of tremendous benefit to you. Those books are:

Your Music and People by Derek Sivers
Addicted to the Monkey Mind by J.F. Benoist
Bluefishing by Steve D. Sims

Your Music and People

The vast majority of musicians are not marketers nor are they buisness people. Musicians want to make music and touch people emotionally, not do paperwork or advertising. Similar can be said for artists, sound designers, programmers, and creators in general.

We love the idea of success, but not at the expense of authenticity or mindlessness.

My friend Derek Sivers cracked the code on this for himself with the creation of CD Baby. This book is effectively a manual for any creative in how to find success by being exactly yourself.

Yes, there will still be paperwork involved, but no loss of authenticity. Sivers describes summarizes the book as a manual to “creative and considerate fame”.

He makes the book 100% for free on his website through a series of blog posts, which also have the audio attached. If you’d like a formal eBook/audiobook package, it’s just $15.

Grab yourself a copy of Your Music and People.

Addicted to the Monkey Mind

I’m a recovering constant worrier. If there could be something remotely wrong – I’d fret about it and get anxious. When I was younger, I’d get so axious that the skin on the palm of my hands would peel literally just from stress. Much of it was imagined, because I was constantly focused on “what if” scenarios.

Addicted to the Monkey Mind addresses that directly.

If you’ve ever found yourself in a place where your hummingbird mind is flitting around like crazy thinking – What if I can’t get a job? What if I lose my job? What if I fail? What if people hate what I made? What if they don’t like me? What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough?

And then you follow it up with thoughts of self-doubt, self-loathing, and depression – this is your book. It’s available on all major platforms, and will help you slowly but surely turn off the dripping faucet of anxiety that your brain has been trained to become.

Grab yourself a copy of Addicted to the Monkey Mind.

Bluefishing

Steve Sims’ job is to literally do the impossible. It doesn’t matter if it’s to meet the creators of your favorite music, movies, and games, tickets to the most VIP events, or even to experience what it’s like to live exactly like James Bond for a week. Steve will get it done.

Bluefishing is all about the principles he uses to achieve the impossible.

While you may think to yourself “Adam, I’d just be happy if I could have a cool job for a living. I don’t need much else.” – I think you’ll be surprised as how much this book pertains to your desires. I used a number of these principles to land my first “dream jobs”, and then once I got there I realized how much more was left to be desired.

I spend a lot of my time now thinking about what impossible things I’d like to do, and then figuring out how to do them. Steve’s book is literally a playbook for this. It will expand your mind and heart as to what’s possible, and then help you get there.

Grab yourself a copy of Bluefishing.

“But Adaaam” you say, “do you mean that you actually want me to read?!”

Why yes, I do.

Get off YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Slack, TikTok, Snapchat, Discord, Twitch, and everything else you use to chill out. Then pick up a book.

Audio or text, it doesn’t matter and you’re not cheating if you listen to books. Just pick it up, set a timer for three minutes, and read.

Then put it down and do that again tomorrow. Do it again until you think the timer is silly and you’re reading for five minutes, ten minutes, hours at a time. It’s a great use of your time, and I’ve given you three books to get started.

Here’s what they were again:

Your Music and People by Derek Sivers (bonus points if you email him after reading it)
Addicted to the Monkey Mind by J.F. Benoist
Bluefishing by Steve D. Sims

Wisdom is better than jewels

And while Gutenberg died with no jewels, we’re really glad he still helped create a medium that Italians would help pick up for widespread adoption.

Now you’ve got three gifts of wisdom I’ve shared to make you more mentally rich!

And if you want a fourth…

I’d be remiss if I didn’t share my own work – Quit Aspiring – which I wrote with the intention of giving you a pathway to the game audio career of your dreams. A lot of people have mailed me since I typed it out, saying that it’s done just that for them – and reduced their stress tremendously in the process.

Grab your copy of Quit Aspiring.