By Tom Hess

Would you like to become a successful professional musician who works full time in the music industry? The truth is, starting a career in music and earning a good living doing it is a very attainable goal. However, many musicians make the mistake of trying to build a career into the music business with absolutely no strategy for success. As a result, it takes them much longer to accomplish what they want with music (if they ever do).
If you would like to start a career in music and quickly reach success as a professional musician, it is crucial to find a mentor who has already achieved great things in the music business. By learning about the music industry from a professional who has already done big things, you will be much more likely to succeed in your own music career.
To show you what I mean, think about the world famous basketball star Michael Jordan. Even if you are not a basketball fan, it is likely that you have heard of the incredible success that Jordan achieved throughout his career. Over the span of about two decades, Jordan became known as one of the best athletes ever (in any sport) as he broke countless records, won many championships, and made A LOT of money from his player salary (not to mention through endorsements, shoe sales, and other means). By himself, Jordan was certainly a very talented athlete; however, he did not make it to the top alone. In every moment of his legendary career, Jordan continually received the advice, coaching and training of many mentors both within basketball and outside of basketball. As a result, he was able to take the incredible natural ability he had to play and turn it into something truly unforgettable. In fact, this situation is not exclusive to Michael Jordan, any athlete who has ever achieved incredible success has always maintained connection to a mentor even after winning major titles, awards or medals.
Similar to Michael Jordan or any other highly successful athlete, if your goal is to succeed in your music career, you will be able to achieve much more by finding a mentor who can change you from a talented amateur musician to a successful music professional. In order to find a great mentor for your music career, it is important for you to know what qualities you should be looking for in such a person. Here are the top 3 qualities of a music career mentor who can help you become highly successful:
1. Has the ability to pay attention to the small details of your music career while also helping you to stay on track toward your larger, long term goals.
In order to maintain success throughout your music career, you will need to keep your biggest goals in mind with each action you take. For most musicians, it is easy for them to become distracted in their music careers and lose direction. This often leads them down a long and frustrating path as they seem to be ‘doing things’ in their music career, but in fact are not working toward what it is that they truly want to achieve. Additionally, the majority of musicians do not understand how to pursue their music career goals in a highly focused manner by using an effective strategy. These musicians generally see limited to no success and as a result are forced to work outside of the music business.
When looking for your mentor, you must make sure that this person understands how to build highly effective strategies to help you achieve your music career goals as quickly as possible. With that in mind, it is possible that even with the right strategy in place, you may still become distracted, confused or uncertain throughout the course of your music career. A good mentor will instantly notice subtle signs that you are going down the wrong path, and will quickly step in to help you find your way again.
If you have not determined specific goals for your music career yet, it is important that you do so right away. Take this music career test to get a find out specifically what you want to get out of your music career.
2. Is already highly successful in the music business, and is able to help you solve any problems that get in the way of your music career goals.
Starting a career in music is often a very frustrating experience for most musicians. Although there is a great deal of information about the music business online; most of it is intended for use by the general music community. As a result, you may have specific questions for your own challenges in your music career, but no specific answers to help you deal with them. On top of that, the music industry information you find online does not help you understand the difference between ‘useful’ information, and information that either no longer applies to most musicians or does not apply for you in your own music career. This is why it is absolutely essential that you find a mentor who understands the inner workings of the music industry and has already built a successful career by figuring these things out.
When you have access to personalized advice from someone like this, you will quickly be able to solve any issues that arise in your music career. This will give you the ability to approach a career in music with a clear understanding of exactly what needs to get done in order to reach your personal goals.
3. Has previously helped other musicians become highly successful in the music industry (and can show you the proof!)
The music industry is unique from many other industries because becoming successful with a career in music does not require attending university programs, receiving a degree or taking any kind of special tests. That said, it is much easier for amateur musicians to ‘talk big’ when it comes to their music careers. Sometimes you will come across people in the music industry who claim to be highly successful, when in fact they are not. As you begin looking for a music career mentor, it is very crucial that you avoid the advice of these types of musicians and find someone who can really back up their claims of success in the music business.
In order to find a mentor who truly knows how to help you succeed in your music career, look first at the success of the musicians he is training/has trained in the past. If this person is truly a great mentor, he will not need to tell you so. Instead, it will be obvious due to the overwhelming amount of positive feedback given by the current and former musicians who have worked with him. Once a great mentor has helped many musicians achieve their musical goals, they naturally will feel a need to voice their approval. This can be observed commonly in the form of testimonials on your mentor’s website or in other areas online.
As someone who has personally trained many people to become successful professional musicians, I cannot stress enough the importance of finding a mentor as you pursue a career in music. Fact is, I would not be where I am today in the music business if it weren’t for the help of my current and former mentors. Don’t make the mistake of trying to figure everything out on your own in the music business. This is the same thing that so many musicians do, and this is why most musicians DO NOT make it with successful music careers. Regardless of your current experience in the music industry, I encourage you to seek out your own music career mentor as soon as possible so you can quickly begin reaching your full potential for success in your music career.
Find out how you can become a successful pro musician in the music business by reading the information on this musician mentoring page.
Do you still have uncertainty about working with a mentor? Learn about your strong and weak areas as a musician in the music business by taking a free assessment and seeing if a music success mentor can help you get where you want to go.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is an electric guitar teacher online and a music career mentor. He plays guitar and tours with the band Rhapsody Of Fire. Tom also trains musicians on how to succeed in the music business. On his professional musician website tomhess.net you can read many more articles about making a living with a music career.