The Fear Of Failure

I have a theory: so many home studio owners aren’t making the kind of music they want because of fear. Specifically people are afraid of failure. Failing as an audio engineer. Fear of never producing the kind of tracks they hear on their favorite records. Fear that they just aren’t good enough.

Via Chris Potter Flickr

Why Are You So Afraid?

Does this resonate with you? Are you afraid of failure? Why? Too many people give up on this home studio thing before they are even out of the gate. I get emails every week filled with words of desperation and fear. People tell me they have all the “right” equipment and gear, yet they aren’t getting the results they want. They hope I somehow know the answer.

And you know what? I do! The reason so many of you aren’t getting the results you want is because you are too afraid to keep trying. Your fear is holding you back from the very thing you need in order to improve, experience. The more you work at this, the harder you push into your craft, the more confident you will become and the better your recordings and mixes will be. Guaranteed.
 

You’ll Never Be The Best

I hate to break it to you, but you and I will never be the absolute best recording/mixing engineer on the planet. It’s just not going to happen. No matter how hard you “believe in yourself” you’ll never “will” yourself into greatness. That’s just bogus. But guess what? The good news is now that we’ve got that out of the way, the pressure is off. You don’t have to be the best!

Instead you can grow your skill and become frickin’ awesome at recording and mixing. But not if you’re afraid of not being the best. Take the burden of absolute greatness off of your shoulders and instead get back to work on your latest mix. Your tracks will get better and you’ll have more fun in the process.

Don’t Let Fear Hold You Back

I’m not sure if it’s a generational thing, but people (especially young people) these days seem petrified of making mistakes. They want their lives mapped out for them. I’m seeing this in the recording world every day as people are afraid of purchasing the wrong DAW, the wrong microphone, the wrong plugins, using the wrong vocal techniques, mixing at the wrong sample rate, etc. It’s ridiculous. What a waste of energy!

Don’t be afraid. Just get to work. Work hard. Educate yourself. Try new things. Make mistakes. Get feedback. Have thick skin. Don’t be so timid that you lose out. There’s no magic bullet to audio recording and mixing improvement, only experience, time, and hard work. So stop reading this and get to it!