Confidence issues? Read this!

Business & Career
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Hello everyone…

Some motivation words for people who still struggle with their “confidence”…

A lot of times, people in the audio industry, of course in all others too, ask “How do I get a job? How do I get hands-on a project?”

The answer is obvious: “Reach out to people, and ask them if they need your help…”. Sometimes I think that too many people are afraid of being rejected…

All I can say is that if you are and still continue being this person, you’ll probably never end up being where you wish you want to be now…makes sense, right?

And what’s the biggest excuse?

“I’m not sure if I am good enough…”.

Now I ask you…who said that you need to be the best, and how do you know what “good enough” means for others? Why do you start limiting yourself, if no one else is doing it for you?

Reach out and ask. You get rejected or ignored?

Repeat this process 100x times and if you still haven’t found someone who believes in you and your talent, then write me a PN and let’s talk about your situation.

No matter where you are, no matter what you do. There are always people out there who NEED YOUR HELP!

But please don’t comment on this post by telling me that “But you can work from home (online) and I do have a job that doesn’t allow me to do so…”.

Don’t tell yourself these lies. Don’t allow yourself to give those kinds of excuses. You have MORE than one talent. And you know it. And you can always find a way how to share this talent with the world. You just need to want it and start looking not only forward, but right and left as well.

Let me ask you: If you spend three hours daily on Insta, Facebook and YouTube, and Co. what do you do? Looking at pictures of others how beautiful their life is? Reverse it and start showing others how great your talent is. I’m pretty sure that you CAN share your talent and/or expertise online. If others can, why not you?

Look, even this type of post to share with the world is not scary for me. Why? If I would ask myself every time I post something…What do people think of me? Will they resonate with the content? Do they like what I have shared?

Seriously? I don’t care. If you don’t resonate with it, so be it. Then I know that I don’t need to waste my time arguing with these people what I think and what they think of a specific topic. But there will always someone who WILL resonate with your words. With your content. With your type of thinking, humor, behavior, etc. and those are the people that you need to find out there!

Start a blog if you are afraid of being in front of the camera and you prefer writing. Start a YouTube-Channel if you feel that your message transforms best with your physical emotions. Start to talk about your niche. Start to talk about your talent, about how you can help others. Start to share what you can do best. And finally, start to see how you grow with the people who have found you, day after day, week after week, month after month…

There are so many fake people out there online who talk shit that no one needs…and still, they have success. Now imagine if you don’t talk shit and start sharing your craft and emotions with people who resonate with it…

Of course, if you have questions about “HOW” to start your journey you can reach out and I will be glad to help you.

Besides all the talking…I have done many things this year…at some point, I was physically and emotionally done – exhausted. Yes, it was hard. Yes, it is hard. And it will always be. But what I have learned is…it’s not about the “end-result”, it’s about the journey. It’s about who you meet and the road to your goal that you want to achieve.

As I have said, you will always find people who share the same things as you do. There is nothing out there, that is not possible to find. Go online, and start to search…but please…don’t give up after 5 minutes. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to reach out to people to GIVE your help!

Said-Done. Now I am officially the Lead Sound Designer for an indie game.

To your success,
Alexey :slight_smile:

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Thanks for the words Alexey. I definitely still suffer from this mindset. The, “My music isn’t good enough yet,” thinking. I feel that it’s not really that bad, but not quite up to spec to be successful. But the key word is, “yet.”

I agree that you just need to keep reaching, working and practicing and you’ll get there. I find that every time I complete a new piece of music, I learn something and is composed/sounds better than the last. So while I don’t feel I’m there yet, I know what the goal is, I can see the finish line, and keep moving toward it. It might take longer than expected, there may be some setbacks along the way, but keep sight of the goal and move forward.

I got some advice years ago, I don’t even remember from whom, but they said that if you have a goal you want to reach, do something every day that has to do with reaching that goal, no matter how small or inconsequential it may seem in the lager picture. In my case, if I’m not writing music, then study a bit of theory, or do some score reading, or practice an instrument, or just listen to some music while relaxing. Watch a movie or read a book about music–anything to motivate or inspire you.

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Thank you for your reply @MaestroX!

Well, I guess we never will be „there“, and it will always feel like this, as after you have reach your personal goal, you need to set another to continue growing.

What you mean basically is that you do something constantly without asking „why“. It’s a great approach on one hand, but I’ll always distant myself after a while to ask myself if it’s still the right direction, and if my doings are „just productive“, or really goal orientated aka. effective.

I’ve met a lot of successful people and they ALL have issues with confidence, I am good enough, what do others think. There are even billionaires who think this way.

What I said before that is the most important thing is the path you are going and if you really enjoy the journey. Of course we all strive for goals, have wishes, dreams and what not, but at the end it’s how much joy you bring to the day, how you feel inside yourself and if you are d‘accord with the things you do.

Trying is not enough. Doing over and over again is what separates the „best“ from the „rest“. And the „best“ are not necessary the „best“. But they are 100% the best at grinding and continue pushing themselves day after day, week after week, month after month.

There are a tone of topics connected hear, fear and confidence, doubts and everyday struggles. But one thing remains. Do you continue pushing or do you give up after trying 5 times?

I thought about should I mention what I have „achieved“, or not. Do others have to know what I do now, as they will judge, which of course is often the case. But as I have said, I don’t care. Because I just wanted to say that I am far away of calling myself a „real“ sound-designer for games. There are so many things I have no clue about. But it all doesn’t matter. Because you write and ask people if they need your help. They didn’t even ask for sound-examples. You never know who is on the other side and what they think. Write a polite message. It’s not a big deal. Talk about their wishes and dreams and send them something they can relate to. That’s it. It can be that easy. But of course you could up ending writing 100+ emails to finally see someone interested in your help.

I did it for films too. It’s far more realistic. You go to Instagram, check out the projects you like and can relate to and start writing some PNs. Even if someone doesn’t need your music now, they will remember you if the time will come.

Keep on grinding, keep the faith. And you will get there!

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LOL this is just so good man haha thanks for this

I have known people who tell me that frustrating line ‘But i’ve already tried it already and it didn’t work’. This is the perfect counter argument. Trying is not enough! Awesome stuff :slight_smile:

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Hans Zimmer is known for having massive confidence issues. Love him or hate him, he is doing very well career wise and has been for decades.

Lesson: Don’t wait for confidence issues to be solved before going all in and doing your best work.

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“I’m not sure if I am good enough…”.

Now I ask you…who said that you need to be the best, and how do you know what “good enough” means for others? Why do you start limiting yourself, if no one else is doing it for you?

Reach out and ask. <<<

This!

I have had several occasions as a recording or mix engineer where i assumed i would be the least qualified, least knowledgeable person on the gig, only to find out just the opposite.
And on occasions where my assumption turned out to be true, i still oftentimes knew just enough to be of service.

Steven

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@Weeeeve The dreaded “imposter syndrome” - I suffer that still in a (non-music) career I have been doing for almost 20 years

When it comes to composing music, I only recently became involved in orchestral/cinematic composing because I cannot play guitar for extended periods of time anymore due to a couple of injuries – so, I am almost always afraid to post my works-in-progress for fear of ridicule but, from what I have learned from this forum (and VIC) is that the online composer community is one of the friendliest and most helpful communities there is – rarely, if ever, do I come across any of the toxicity of other types of forums – this has helped me feel less like an imposter and more like one of the gang

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Oh my gosh, me too! I’m an engineer during the day, and I’m always wondering when everyone around me will realize I don’t have a clue what I’m doing! :^0
I have that same worry with my music. But I try to remember to just write what I like, and let that bring me joy, and maybe someone else will like it too, and then there’s double joy!

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