Our lives are a collection of experiences. We see people do things and make a decision - either we replicate them or we ignore them. The first time I saw my older cousin play the guitar, it was a resounding decision to replicate. Nothing at that moment seemed cooler than being a rockstar.
Then began the process of convincing my parents that they should buy me a guitar. My mother was completely against it, her logic being I would lose interest in a week and this would be another expensive toy left to gather dust. In her defense, I was 15, did like to try out new things and if I didn’t enjoy it nothing in the world could make me do it. (A trend that has lasted to this day) Fortunately, my superhero of a father stepped in and let me buy one. His parenting philosophy was to let his son try as many things as possible to find what he truly enjoyed.
I was on top of the world! I signed up for lessons and was immediately disappointed. I had NO interest in learning ‘twinkle twinkle little star’ or ‘happy birthday’ That wasn’t very rockstar and I needed to be one in an hour. Fortunately, this was right around the time a little thing called Youtube was beginning to pick up steam and I could just look up lessons online and get to it. I promptly canceled my lessons and spent hours every day learning from the guys on youtube. With time I started getting pretty good. The results were a byproduct of the happiness I felt strumming the guitar. I felt alive. As cheesy as it sounds, my soul felt at peace.
It’s a couple of years later and I’ve started my undergraduate degree. I needed to find a job to make money but summer jobs weren’t really a thing in India. So I had the bright idea to start teaching guitar. I was good enough to help beginners and could make decent money along the way.
That became my first business and my first sales job i.e finding customers and convincing them to pay me money. That’s a story for a different day. I taught for roughly 3 years and had more than 50 students, pretty pleased by that number in hindsight.
While I did make enough money to make it through undergrad, I didn’t really enjoy teaching. Playing the guitar became work. I needed to practise not because I wanted to but because I had to be ‘The Teacher’ It took away from the joy I felt playing the guitar. I learned I loved acquiring new customers more than teaching those customers! It was my first sales job that eventually has become my career.
At one point I’d had enough and decided to pull the plug on teaching. I stopped playing the guitar as well. Every time I looked at the guitar, it felt like work.
5 years later I started playing guitar again. It brings me joy. I posted a couple of videos online playing and a friend innocently asked, “Are you working on building a following with the guitar content?”
I said, “Absolutely not!” I know we’re in the age of side hustles and multiple revenue streams but THIS will not be a revenue/income channel. Playing the guitar is my way of calming myself and it brings me joy. Can I monetize it? For sure, instructors make good money. Will I do it? Nope.
Not everything has to make you money, some things can just bring you joy. Don’t lose yourself in the process of optimising every aspect of your life.