All in

Every gig has pain points. The drive is way too long, the set is too long, the per hour rate doesn’t make sense. Maybe there’s somebody on the team that is a little difficult to deal with.

This is when we’re tempted to do the bare minimum, complain, and show up with a bad or indifferent attitude.

If you’re a career musician, there’s really only two options: all in, or not at all.

Our job is to always show up as the best version of who we can be artistically to every gig, regardless of if we’re being fairly compensated or not.

There’s many reasons why all in is the only option, but maybe the most practical reason is all future gigs come from current gigs. People hire people who are crushing their current gig, not limping along.

Added bonus: when you practice going all in on everything you say yes to, you get really good at going all in. So when the right gigs come along, you know how to get into gear quickly.

. . .

Also, if you’re a musician and you consistently find yourself not being able to go all in on gigs, the answer is probably to say no to the things you can’t or won’t go all in on, to free up time and energy.