Am I Too Old To Have A Music Career?

Most likely not.

Here is why:

There are many different ways to build a music career.

Some of them do get harder when you get older

(Like, if you want to start singing opera at age 65, you’ll probably have a heck of a time.)

But if you want to make money playing gigs, recording albums, licensing your music, selling products and merchandise, doing session work, going on tour or teaching music?

Then, if you are within your working years, the only thing stopping you is yourself.

Not your age.

Fun fact:

The other day I went to Google and searched for:

“old people who became successful”.

And I found some impressive stats:

1. The 10 oldest people to climb Mount Everest ranged in age from 65-80.

2. Ray Kroc (who made McDonald’s what it is), Colonel Sanders (who started the KFC chain), Samuel Jackson, Morgan Freeman and Henry Ford – all hit their (first) big successes in their mid 40’s, 50s or 60s.

3. (My personal favorite): At age 95, Nola Ochs was certified by the Guinness Book of Records as…

The world’s oldest person to graduate college!

Something to think about.

Granted: other people’s successes have nothing to do with you. And only you can decide if you are too old for a music career.

But I doubt these people could have done what they did, thinking they were too old to even try. Do you?

Something else:

I’ve been helping musicians (some as young as 16 and some over 60) get into the music industry since 2005.

I’ve coached many to become full time pros.

I’ve also seen many not get anywhere.

Someday, I may write a book on the 1001+ reasons why musicians fail. But you know what reason will NOT be on that list?

Age.

I’ve never seen anyone fail from being “too old”. Not once. Not ever.

No matter if you are 18 or 68, if you want a music career, it takes 3 things:

1. Decide what you want to achieve.

2. Discover the steps to get there.

3. Do the right things in the right order and in the right way to turn your dream into reality.

If you want some help with this, go here.

Here are some of the results musicians I mentored have achieved:

"The main reason that I like to be in the Music Careers Mentoring Program is because it gave me direction of what to do how to do it and what I need to do next. It really focused a lot of things that I kind of knew that I needed to do, but it laid out a path for me to follow and it was very focused and concise."

The Music Careers Mentoring Program has elevated my status as a musician where I’ve been able to present myself in a much more professional way as a guitar player, as a musician, as somebody aspiring to be in the music business.

The Music Careers Mentoring Program has had a positive effect on everything related to my career. The imaging part of it, presenting yourself as a professional and therefore being treated as a professional... I’ve gotten an invaluable result from that. Endorsements from manufacturers. the perception of my professionalism. Just even just on a local level. Yeah.

Oh it’s incredibly inspiring. You get to see other people growing with you or either are further along than you and all the things... cool things that they’ve attained... and then you see the other people who are a little behind you in progress in the program and you can see yourself in them and see how much you’ve grown since then.

The forum is a great tool of... it’s interesting because a lot of the times the answers to your questions are right there from your peers... so Tom Hess is accessible, but you can instantly have an answer from just the information that’s already been there on the forum from people who proceeded you or you can have an MCMP person right there on the forum and they might be able to help you out immediately.

Mark Turko, Thomaston, Connecticut, USA

"I've done what's in the Music Careers Mentoring Program and made some great advances and hope to make many many more. I'm a full time musician, I'm part of a band called FireWolfe with another member of Tom's Music Careers Mentoring Program - Nick Layton. We put out an album and signed a record deal with a Japanese label, Rubicon Musicm, we've made many contacts, many steps in the industry where we are going to continue to move forward in other parts of the world."

That's been the biggest thing I've got from the Music Careers Mentoring Program: Being able to do something on a level where I've always wanted to do that, thought about that, above and beyond just trying to be a local guitar hero, trying to get things out to that next level, and continue to go to the next level from there.

The time and money that I've invested into the Music Careers Mentoring Program has definitely been worth it. I'm making my living as a full time musician, so anything I've invested I've gotten back and beyond. It has made it possible for me to have a schedule and a life that allows me to do what I want to do.

Paul Kleff, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

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