Entrepreneurs in Music — and Don’t Forget about Mozart!

Several things have come to mind as I’ve read our panelists’ postings so far: how hard each of them has worked, how diverse their projects are, and how single-minded they’ve each had to be. Ray and Angela pointed out that musicians are often good at several things. Chuck and Robert responded to specific “needs” and created successful products. Douglas found a niche that he fit into. Claire and Bridget created organizations that grew out of their personal visions. Kate has done a little bit of all those (and much more!)

Their postings hint at the number of hours they worked initially to get their projects/products realized, and it’s obvious that without that sort of dedication we wouldn’t be reading about them.

Lots of people who finish college with a music degree give up when they don’t get a job right away. Others continue as musicians, but we’ve all seen the surveys showing that many musicians (especially orchestral musicians) are highly dissatisfied with their jobs.

So my question for our panelists today is: do you have a specific personality trait that helps you? It seems to me that you need to be optimistic and believe in yourself and your ideas, as well as hard-working, to be a musical entrepreneur. Is there anything else?