Overnight Success: Should You Wish For It?

Whether it's a generation Y (aka the popcorn generation) thing or a recurring dream in many a human being, overnight success crosses our minds. All the more so with art, and music. From obscurity to celebrity/sensation. It may form the perfect theme for tonight's midnight dream, but in reality, is this what we should be hoping for in our musical efforts?

The following 10 statements are excerpts from an insightful post on why you shouldn't wish for overnight success. I sense some scare tactics with many of them,but at the same time, I appreciate the insights, but I'm unsure as to what side of the argument to let my mind settle into.

One could argue that it's ok to wish for overnight success if you watch and learn from others who've gone ahead of them...after all, we are sent off on our life journeys with quotes such as 

“Dream the impossible dream, Fight the unbeatable foe, Strive with your last once of courage To reach the unreachable star.”

Here goes:

1.  You won’t be mentally prepared to deal with all of the fame, fortune, and international attention. You will crash and burn.
2.  You won’t be well-rehearsed or experienced enough and your performance won’t be ready for overnight global attention. 
3.  Critics and fans will eat you alive for every little misstep you do, crushing your soul and spirit in the process. Whether it be a misconstrued comment to reporter, a silly tweet, a questionable photo, or even what you’re eating or wearing… you will have a target firmly painted on your forehead for all to take aim at.
4.  You will have a very short career. Overnight successes do not create life-long fans. They create flash-in-the-pan, one-hit wonders.
5.  You will spend most of your money while being consumed in the excitement and frenzy of your new-found celebrity… only to find yourself broke when your fame suddenly dries up overnight.
6.  Substance abuse and addiction is virtually imminent. Your handlers will push you beyond the brink of what your body is able to physically endure in order to squeeze every last dollar out of your celebrity before it fades away. You will be forced to medicate in order to deal with and maintain your frantic schedule.
7.  You won’t have the wisdom of past experiences to guide you through the confusing and often deceitful industry. You will be taken advantage of; personally, professionally and financially.
8. You won’t be able to repeat the same level of success ever again. Having your life hit its peak overnight and then fade away as quickly as it appeared is a soul-crushing event and a recipe for severe mental depression, stress and anguish.
9. True success is all about the continuous journey of improvement and the satisfaction you get from enduring the tough times and accomplishing your dreams and visions through persistence and hard work. If you skip the process and the journey itself, your enjoyment will be short-lived, regardless of your riches.
10.  Your values and ideals will be compromised. You will lose control of the very thing you believe in the most… your art. You will have to sign lengthy and confusing contracts with labels and agents and managers and publishers and promoters and attorneys… all of whom will steer your life and career in a direction which benefits their own needs, not yours. 

 

 

It's not just in the music industry, though, that these insights apply. Below are more thoughts on the matter:

• The Myth of Overnight Success (the Angry Birds' story)
• Overnight Success Takes A Long Time (music app, Spotify's story)

"The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened."