Driving for Dollars

I’m not sure that driving for dollars puts any more strain on the social aspects of living for a musician than, say, working in an office 10+ hours per day, six days a week does for a mid-level executive. I do have a few non-musician types in my own social circle and they tend to be independent business owners, mid-level executives, or freelance consultants of some type or another. I would say that they seem to be somewhat envious of my not being tied down in some office rather than not willing to understand the challenges of what I do. But I also find that my musician friends are more adept at working out scheduling challenges than others. My own family looks at my driving for dollars as my being out of town on business for the day, or for the week. So it hasn’t been too much of a problem. I suppose I’m more fortunate in that regard than others.

Over the years I have managed to figure out planning a social life into my schedule. For the most part, I keep business separate from social activities. Business is for business, meals are for meals, and so forth. As I stated in an earlier post, I build time into my schedule for unexpected things that may come up. It could be new work, or some family issue, or something to do with a friend, but when it comes up I do the best I can to accommodate it and usually succeed. But – it took many years for me to learn that.