Quit Fucking Around

Not too many years ago, I imagined myself as an “ideas guy”.

This meant that I would hang out with friends (or alone) and come up with “great ideas” for a business, products, services, etc.

I was convinced, with every single idea, that I was sitting on pure gold someone just needed to pick up in order to become rich with.

(You may be laughing at that – but there’s a large likelihood you’re doing exactly that right now)

Most of these ideas I never acted on. They weren’t “what I wanted to do” – which was code for “I don’t feel like doing the work required to do this”

A number of these ideas I tried to act on, or at least it certainly felt that way.

Facebook account for my “business”? Check.

Twitter account for my “business”? Check.

Instagram account for my “business”? Check.

Snapchat account for my “business”? Check.

Placeholder website for my “business”? Check.

Beautiful business cards for my “business”? Check.

Blasting out updates to my friends about my “business” to tell them it’s “coming soon!”? Check.

If that doesn’t sound familiar, perhaps –

Enrolling in a course to “up my game” because I don’t have clients?

Watching tons of YouTube videos to “up my game” because I don’t have cash for a course because I don’t have clients?

Messaging a personality I look up to online in order to “get their opinion” on my idea?

Pulling my friends together because all of us working together would “be cool”?

Agreeing to the first job that comes my way, paid or not, because I need “experience”?

Writing a 10 page “business plan” when I don’t even have a client?

A number of you are probably squirming right now, because you’ve done these things.

This isn’t me making fun of you – these are things I’ve legitimately done – because I was an idiot.

Yes, that means if you’re doing these things, you’re doing some super dumb things and wasting time. (I don’t know that I’d call you an idiot – I don’t feel like that would help you – but I’ll gladly call myself that in past-tense)

Dislaimer

This is where the audience who reads this will, and should, bifurcate.

If you identify with any of those statements above, and you spend your time screwing around (which I’ll elaborate on in a bit) then you’re one of two types of people.

What I’m writing today is going to hit you like a ton of bricks, upset you, and you’re either going to curl up into a ball of sadness or you’re going to attempt to “work hard on the right things” and still quit
What I’m writing today is going to hit you like a ton of bricks, you’ll take the kick in the pants, and you’ll commit to executing good ideas

Those in camp #1 can stop reading after the next paragraph.

If you feel that way, it’s nothing to kick yourself about. Perhaps it’s not the right time, you’re not in the right place, or you simply don’t yet possess the fortitude to tackle your ego and the most important challenges to you, yet. The reason why you’re feeling what you’re feeling, right now, honestly doesn’t matter. The reality is I can’t help you yet, and most of my writing isn’t actually meant for you. I appreciate your time and attention, but it’s better served by not reading my stuff for a bit if it makes you feel kicked in the teeth in a bad way. No hard feelings – we’re okay you and I – but I’d advise you close the tab so you don’t feel like I’m beating you up.

If you’re in camp #2, keep reading.

FYI – you’ll know if you’re in camp #2 if you read all that bold stuff from earlier and have a “ugh, this sounds/feels exactly like me” feeling, but you’re also excited to get beyond that. If you feel like I personally insulted you with any of that – you’re in camp #1.

Faking Work

A few weeks ago I received a message that was multiple pages long. I get this kind of message semi-regularly.

It started out with a nice compliment about how nice my work is.

It then gave me backstory on the person over multiple paragraphs – what they’ve done, their hopes and dreams, and for how long they’ve wished to do something special with audio.

Then they told me what they’re currently actually doing – this wasn’t bad, they had completed some work people could view online.

Lastly they laid out a “plan” to get into doing games work and wanted my opinion on it.

You’ve probably sent emails or messages like this – I have.

Just like all of the “work” from earlier, this is fucking around.

A few days later I received another message.

An industry newcomer had written an article and wanted my opinion on it before it went public.

In reality, they wanted my approval that it was good. Their base intention wasn’t getting constructive feedback.

This is also fucking around.

Here’s reality for you if you’re still reading and identified with the above. It’s one I had to face a while ago, and was ugly to look at it.

You’re really good at fucking around and not actually getting anything done.

That sucks, doesn’t it?

It did when I realized it. I felt like a pretty awful worthless human. Like it was impossible to actually do anything I ever really wanted to do in life.

Make no mistake, there were things I really wanted to do.

But at that moment, that’s exactly who I was and what I was good at – just super good at faking work and looking busy.

If you’re feeling that way right now reading this, I’d suggest you sit in that for 10 seconds. Don’t kick yourself, don’t assault yourself mentally. For me, it looked like a giant sigh and saying to myself “I don’t want to be like this anymore”.

Done that, or your version? Good.

You have 100% of the capability inside of yourself right now, as you are (in the suck), achieve everything you want and are willing to commit to.

Read that bold sentence again.

I mean every word of that. You don’t need anything additional. You don’t need a book, course, time, accountability buddy, knowledge, better routine, energy, anything.

(Unless, of course, you have a medical issue – there’s always someone who doesn’t fit 100%)

You can, without a doubt, be the awesome, smart, uber-functional and successful person you imagine yourself being.

“But how, Adam?!”

Get to Work, Consistently

There’s a thing floating around the internet that it takes 10,000 hours to attain mastery of a skill.

I don’t necessarily 100% subscribe to that – but I know you must consistently practice your skills and craft in order to get better.

That means as many days in the week as you can muster, for as long as you can.

That means 15 minutes 1 day per week for some of you.

For others, that means 6-12 hours of work every day.

You need to figure out what your practice schedule is, and do it. If you don’t have a project to work on, make one up for yourself.

Most importantly, don’t worry about anything you do being good, much less “perfect”. And for the love of God, pick one skill to practice – not 3.

Isn’t it funny how we know it takes a lot of time to get good at something – but when we pick it up we expect to be Mozart our first time out? If our craft isn’t just perfect we’re scared to put it out!

But it’s impossible to be perfect when you suck – and you will suck when you start at anything.

I’m 2+ years into writing multiple times a week every week and, believe me, my writing still sucks.

I’m 10 years into an audio career and I’m by far not the most talented audio person I know in any realm of the industry.

So focus on quantity over quality in the short term. When someone calls you out – just agree with them.

“Oh yeah I totally suck! ….for now.”

There are no Gatekeepers

Devalue the opinions of others – they’re surprisingly mostly useless to you. I’m not kidding.

Instead of creating a project, sharing it with others, and hanging your ego on their opinions and feedback – completely ignore the vast majority of opinions and feedback.

Most of these opinions are contradictory, and a large number of them are bad advice.

Yes, even skilled professionals can give you bad advice. Even I can give you bad advice! Notice how I told some people earlier in this piece to quit reading? This is all bad advice for them!

The point truly, is this:

When it comes to putting out content when you’re getting started (even now for me), is just getting it done and putting it out.

I would write if you weren’t here – I did, for years.

I would program and do audio work if nobody paid me – I did, for years.

When you hold your work back because you need someone else to say it’s good first, you’re effectively neutering your creative output yourself.

Who cares if it’s not good… yet? Less than 1% of us in the world are child prodigies. Even then, isn’t it more satisfying to work for what you get?

It is, trust me. I hated writing this book for 90% of the time while I was writing it. I couldn’t be more proud of actually getting it out today, I love it so much.

Going back to what I said earlier for one second – I said “completely ignore the vast majority of opinions and feedback”.

Notice I didn’t say completely ignore all opinions and feedback.

There’s a two step process you can follow for all the work you put out from now on:

Put out the work, opinions be damned.
When one of your personally selected, most esteemed teachers/mentors gives you feedback – listen.

Oh wait, you don’t have any teachers/mentors?

I bet you do – or you could, very easily.

Do you know anyone further along in their career than you who has taught you something and/or you seriously respect?

Does this person know their shit backwards and forwards?

Does this person have real, amazing credentials in their industry?

Are they kind, respectful, courteous, and have been previously helpful to you?

Can you get 10 minutes of their time when you ask for it?

You don’t have to be particularly close to this person/person(s) – you just need to know how you feel about them. When they give you feedback on your work, you listen. You don’t always (or even super regularly) solicit feedback – you normally patiently wait and see if they feel the need to provide feedback.

Regardless of if they provide any feedback, you keep churning out work and keep cultivating a relationship from them and learning.

But nobody should stop you from just putting out work. There’s no such thing as a gatekeeper in the world anymore. You can be successful as soon as you commit to it.

A Map to Guide You

For most of you creatives – there’s no actual map or guidebook that can tell you the exact right steps to become a quick success in your industry.

But, with the help of some friends, I wrote a book on the skills I employed to get myself a job in game audio and exactly how you can use them.

Effectively, you can use skills and principles I learned over 10 years to build your own roadmap to the career you really want in game audio.

No more looking at Reddit for help.

No more reading blogs like this.

No more asking social media and chat rooms.

No more going to fruitless meetups.

You can simply grab the book, put everything in it to work, and you’ll automatically quit fucking around (or, aspiring, as it were)

You can find it here – Quit Aspiring.