 PrefaceThere are many different ways to define "success". To me, it boils to down to being able to make a living doing what I love, to the very best of my ability—which is to say, it's more about the journey than the destination. I don't (currently) have some grandiose goals of being a millionaire, driving a Lamborghini, and retiring to some tropical private island. Instead, I'm focused on doing what I love simply for the sake of exactly that: being able to spend a lifetime doing what I love and feel fulfilled by. Success is about personal fulfillment, not material things; money is only worth what you spend it on, so I only seek to have as much as I need to support the lifestyle I'd like to have. Having said that, the question becomes: How do I plan on creating and sustaining that kind of "successful" lifestyle? Ultimately, it comes down to trading value for value—both in business and in my personal life.  It Had To Start SomewhereWhen I first created AHM nearly three years ago, I wasn't certain of the direction I wanted to go with it. I figured the website would serve primarily as a detailed portfolio of my work as a musician, which could be linked to whenever I had a supporter interested in purchasing my work, or perhaps a client interested in commissioning my services. It seemed like a great idea at the time... except that I had a very small body of work—very little of which would have qualified as truly "professional" and none of which did I really know how to make available for sale. And beyond that: what services did I even have to offer? |