Chasing Excellence vs Chasing Approval


I've always been the type to let my craft speak for itself. I've found things to be much more effective when you put the work/energy into creating excellence instead of doing things out of a craving for approval. One of my funniest experiences with  this  happened about 4 years ago. 

I went to this popular studio with a friend  to shop some music to an artist. When we pulled up, I saw  a Bentley and several other luxury vehicles parked outside. I was only driving a humble Ford, but I parked my Ford right beside  them with no shame! When I walked in the studio, nobody made any effort to acknowledge my presence. I greeted them but received  no reply in return. They  underestimated and ignored me as soon as I hit the door. Most people would take offense to that, but I actually thought it was hilarious lol! See I've experienced this plenty of times. People will try to "size you up" and make assumptions based on all kinds of meaningless criteria. But they didn't see all the hard work I'd put into the music they were about to hear. I  already knew how much time I'd put into these tracks and I knew everyone's demeanor  would change once the engineer hit play. I was 100% confident in  my value. I didn't come to seek approval I came to make a sale. As soon as the engineer hit the play button, everybody in the studio got overly excited! They all began to greet me  and ask for my contact info all of a sudden lol!  I cracked a grin and made my sale. 

I said all that to say this. If you feel like your music is slept on, don't get sidetracked and go  out of your way trying to "impress" people. Stop basing your own value on other  people's opinions/assumptions/approval. Sometimes people won't see your value  right away and that's okay!  That's not your concern. The only thing you can do is keep increasing  how  much value you are bringing to the table with your craft. Chase excellence and everything else will take care of itself. Be encouraged! -Tone

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