Stuck Studying Business, Want To Do Music

[Enizeo]

Hello fellow seekers, 

I am confronted with the following challenge right now:

Since almost two years now I am studying International Management. I used to think that this whole marketing and sales thing was right for me, but the more I develop the more I start to strongly dislike it. I just can't see myself working in a big automotive company or anything alike.

My real passion, since a few years now is music, the issue with that is that I found it relatively late and am therefore not as skilled yet as other musicians my age who started at age 12. I will be able to make up for that by working harder and more stratigically, however, I don't really know where to start.

I feel very lost in my field of study right now, my father however feels like it is a great chance for me to "make it" in life. He does not understand at all that driving a fucking Ferrari is of very little importance to me.

I have considered switching to studying music, not for practical reasons, but simply because I am fascinated by pretty much everything musically, and also to get to know some people who I will be able to get some valuable advice from. This is however not a possibility right now, as places on these university are ridiculously limited, and as I already said, I am not good enough to compete at the moment.

All of this leaves my in kind of a weird situation right now, since I do know the field I want to study, even though I do not yet know what exactly I want to be doing for a living yet. It feels like swimming in the middle of the ocean with no idea which direction to go, but staying where I am is just a bad option. 

I am quite sure a few of you have been in a similar situation and would appreciate some direction amd advice

[egoeimai]

Do both. Finish your studies first then do whatever u desire. But first finish what u started. 

[Socrates]

Don't finish. Business studies are the worst of the education industry. People who don't actually own businesses teach you about business. You can literally learn 10x better quality thoery with reading entrepreneurial books and trying out creating a business yourself. Just go for music if it is actually your passion. Finish uni when it is not your passion is the worst advice you can get especially in such a domain where the stuff you learn are irrelevant. If you give yourself a plan b you will always have an excuse not to pursue your passion.

At the end of the day though you know what you really want to do. Are you going to pull the trigger?

[BjarkeT]

Hi

if you want to study music maybe a good solution might be self education as there is a lot of good resources(even free) online nowadays where you can learn music theory from https://www.mymusictheory.com/ i think is a good examples and maybe also study how to become really good at something as there is some good research out there  (for example deep work by cal newport, something called deliberate pratice etc.)

but anyways i think maybe a good thing to do might maybe to study what passion really is before making a huge decision as there are different ways of thinking about it and the results you get is depending on the way you think about it 

for example there is the passion hypothesis and something called self determination theory(or sdt)

The passion hypothesis basically says that you first need to find your passion and then find a job that matches this passion 

The self determination theory says that if you think your actions are important, you feel you are good at what you do and you have good relationships connected through what you do you should feel more happier at what you do

long story short you might end up less happy with the passion hypothesis 

if you are interested in this I highly recommend reading so good they can't ignore you by cal newport as it explains passion in much more detail

hope you can use it  kind regards

Edited May 16, 2017 by BjarkeT

[Dan Arnautu]

@Enizeo Good that you figured this out early enough. I am in a similar situation. Although, I already finished my formal music studies and am doing a philosophy degree in paralel with my music career.

1. If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk you know that going to college for marketing or sales is a waste of time and money. You could put 10x more things in your CV by just ”doing” for 3 years. Also, if you follow Valuetainment, you know that a lot of CEO's don't care in the least if you have a degree or not. They look directly at your portofolio to see what results you have generated up until then.

2. Mastering a new craft takes a lot of work and dedication. Expect working a 9-5 until you develop your musical skills enough (but don't get into the trap of starting to make music only after you master X musical skill) and also working to make the transition into a music career in the remaining hours of your day (which will mean no free time for you at all) - this is a little price to pay if you want to life on your own terms. If you aren't willing to ACTUALLY put in the work necessary, don't complain in the future about your situation.

3. Don't try to change your parents. Adapt to the situation. See what benefits your current situation presents. See if you can make them invest in music related stuff for you. 

4. Staying in college (especially if your parents are paying for it) is a bad move if you aren't 100% sure of your decision. Also, once you get deep into that rabbit hole, it will be much harder to get out and switch careers.

Also, keep in mind: once you become a musician, you become an entrepreneur. Your musical skill will be only 1/4 of what is needed to have a succesful music career.

Plan A: Tell your parents that your want to do your own thing for X period of time, and that if it doesn't work out, you'll go back to college. (the best one in my opinion)

Plan B: Continue with college and study music on the side. Do your thing after college if your parents are willing to let you stay with them while you get momentum. If not,

Plan C: You get a 9-5, work on transitioning to music in your free time.

 

Edited May 17, 2017 by Dan Arnautu
Proofread

[oats]

@Socrates great post. love this line:

"If you give yourself a plan b you will always have an excuse not to pursue your passion." 

 

 

[Enizeo]

On 16.5.2017 at 6:58 PM, Socrates said:

Don't finish. Business studies are the worst of the education industry. People who don't actually own businesses teach you about business. You can literally learn 10x better quality thoery with reading entrepreneurial books and trying out creating a business yourself. Just go for music if it is actually your passion. Finish uni when it is not your passion is the worst advice you can get especially in such a domain where the stuff you learn are irrelevant. If you give yourself a plan b you will always have an excuse not to pursue your passion.

At the end of the day though you know what you really want to do. Are you going to pull the trigger?

This is exactly what I think and how I feel! Business seems to be a field where autodidaction is far more effective than formal education. Thank you for the reassurance

 

 

On 16.5.2017 at 8:32 PM, BjarkeT said:

Hi

if you want to study music maybe a good solution might be self education as there is a lot of good resources(even free) online nowadays where you can learn music theory from https://www.mymusictheory.com/ i think is a good examples and maybe also study how to become really good at something as there is some good research out there  (for example deep work by cal newport, something called deliberate pratice etc.)

but anyways i think maybe a good thing to do might maybe to study what passion really is before making a huge decision as there are different ways of thinking about it and the results you get is depending on the way you think about it 

for example there is the passion hypothesis and something called self determination theory(or sdt)

The passion hypothesis basically says that you first need to find your passion and then find a job that matches this passion 

The self determination theory says that if you think your actions are important, you feel you are good at what you do and you have good relationships connected through what you do you should feel more happier at what you do

long story short you might end up less happy with the passion hypothesis 

if you are interested in this I highly recommend reading so good they can't ignore you by cal newport as it explains passion in much more detail

hope you can use it  kind regards

I was thinking about reading that book for a while, just got it today now after you recommended it. So thanks a lot, I think I will find some great insights and direction in there.

 

 

20 hours ago, Dan Arnautu said:

@Enizeo Good that you figured this out early enough. I am in a similar situation. Although, I already finished my formal music studies and am doing a philosophy degree in paralel with my music career.

1. If you follow Gary Vaynerchuk you know that going to college for marketing or sales is a waste of time and money. You could put 10x more things in your CV by just ”doing” for 3 years. Also, if you follow Valuetainment, you know that a lot of CEO's don't care in the least if you have a degree or not. They look directly at your portofolio to see what results you have generated up until then.

2. Mastering a new craft takes a lot of work and dedication. Expect working a 9-5 until you develop your musical skills enough (but don't get into the trap of starting to make music only after you master X musical skill) and also working to make the transition into a music career in the remaining hours of your day (which will mean no free time for you at all) - this is a little price to pay if you want to life on your own terms. If you aren't willing to ACTUALLY put in the work necessary, don't complain in the future about your situation.

3. Don't try to change your parents. Adapt to the situation. See what benefits your current situation presents. See if you can make them invest in music related stuff for you. 

4. Staying in college (especially if your parents are paying for it) is a bad move if you aren't 100% sure of your decision. Also, once you get deep into that rabbit hole, it will be much harder to get out and switch careers.

Also, keep in mind: once you become a musician, you become an entrepreneur. Your musical skill will be only 1/4 of what is needed to have a succesful music career.

Plan A: Tell your parents that your want to do your own thing for X period of time, and that if it doesn't work out, you'll go back to college. (the best one in my opinion)

Plan B: Continue with college and study music on the side. Do your thing after college if your parents are willing to let you stay with them while you get momentum. If not,

Plan C: You get a 9-5, work on transitioning to music in your free time.

 

1. Like I mentioned above, that is exactly the way I feel, to me, it's just a waste of time

2. This is what I am doing right now, but I spend so much time and especially energy going to university and studying that I started to wonder if this is the best way to do it. I am not sure however if a 9-5 will be any better in that aspect. At least I would earn money that way I guess.

3. I will be thinking about that now, since their support is quite helpful for me at the moment and if I could get them to support my music, it would be a HUGE deal.

4. I live in Germany, so studying is realtively cheap. They do however pay for food and stuff like that, so I can live without needing an income at the moment, which gives me a lot of spare time and energy to put into music

Your Comment was VERY helpful and very practical, thank you, I will try to do the Plan A, that you recommended. I'll let you know how it goes.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Enizeo

[Michael569]

I have wasted 5 years of my life studying business thinking i am getting myself prepared for life. Bullshit...  I am utilising less than 2% of it. They teach you a complete horse-crap , useless theories from people who have 0 experience in business and you can learn all of them on your own. Outdated case studies, boring lectures..

Your dad wants you to have a "good life" just like my dad and just like every dad that sends their kind to "good school". He means it well because he doesn't know any better. Grow up, get degree, get job, get married, retire die... Don't resign without having an escape plan but as it was suggested above, start devoting all your free time to what you love, cut all the crap that is not important like wasted evenings and idle socialising. You are still very young and haven't lost as much time yet. Go do what you love, nothing else is important. 

 

[Dan Arnautu]

@Enizeo I'm glad it helped. This may help you even more if you decided on Plan A.

 

[Enizeo]

28 minutes ago, Dan Arnautu said:

@Enizeo I'm glad it helped. This may help you even more if you decided on Plan A.

 

This dude is awesome, never heard of him before. I'm going to check out some of his other stuff, thanks!

Edit: Holy shit, he is great! I watched some more of his videos and he has exactly the raw, in your face approach that I need to find the energy and courage that I need.

Edited May 18, 2017 by Enizeo

[Dan Arnautu]

@Enizeo Oh boy, I thought you knew him. This guy will radicaly change your life if you follow him.