Ian Hyche
Music Entrepreneurship
Learning Journal
If a music entrepreneur’s belief in one’s unique gift, passion for making a difference through music and the willingness to take charge and learn from challenges in order to create success:
- What is your unique gift? – Do you believe in it enough to invest everything you have in it?
I’m not totally sure what my unique gift would be. - What difference are you trying to make in the world? – How passionate are you about doing this?
Honestly I struggle to think of how me pursuing a career in sound design is changing the world. - How do you define success for yourself? – What challenges do you face in order to create success?
I define success as being able to provide products and outcomes that honestly impress my peers. That could include putting on a good performance of a difficult song, or writing/composing something creative and unique, whatever it may be. If I feel like what I did is something that the people around me can enjoy, then I was successful.
One thing about this outlook is I find myself constantly comparing myself to others. “Oh Person A is performing this amazing song, but I’m performing is this simple easy thing. God that’s so embarrassing.” - What is career vision and a mission?
A Career vision is what you imagine yourself doing, whereas the mission would be the steps you need to take in order to get there. - Can you innovate and creates value and successfully communicate that value to intended audiences?
I believe I can. If I’m not, then I’m not meeting my own definition of success. - Do you have a positive attitude?
I like to think I am a relatively positive person. I might be my own worst critic, but I make an effort to always look at the bright side of, uh, things that aren’t me, and try to have my attitude add to people’s day rather than subtract from them. - Have you set your goals? What is your road map to success? Can you set inspiring and realistic goals?
I have some long and short term goals.
Some of my short term goals are to maintain a place in the sound department of all the theater shows on campus, Learn Logic and another DAW better by the end of the semester, and participate in the sound design of 1 show by the same time.
A long term goal is to get a summer internship under a sound designer or engineer at a theater, game developer office, or film set by the summer of my senior year.
All these goals are achievable and in a set timeframe, making them ideal goals. - Do you have and/or acquire the necessary expertise to actualize your vision?
I have acquired and am in the process of learning a good deal of the skills I need in order to start working on my mission, eventually and hopefully leading to my vision. - What are your priorities? Can you set priorities?
My priorities are to maintain a high gpa, maintain the requirements for my scholarships, and to continue learning and participating in activities that would benefit my future field. - What opportunities are you looking for? What opportunities are you creating or intend to create?
I’m looking for opportunities to provide services in live sound and sound design. I’m constantly networking with students and receiving offers from students to help work their shows. “Hey Person C, I saw you have a recital coming up. I helped work with Persons D, E, and F, do you think you might need my help?
I’m also looking for future internship opportunities and opportunities to help me pursue a master’s degree. - How comfortable are you with uncertainty? What risks are you willing to take?
I can be a relatively anxious person. Getting me into uncertain situations can be difficult, but I like to think that once i’m there and trying, I pick up the ropes of whatever is going on pretty quick. - When facing challenges, do you persevere or do you walk away?
I don’t like to let myself back down when things get difficult, as much as I really want to. I push myself to keep going and either learn a lot and love the outcome, or hate it and learn a lot anyways. - What experience have you learned the most from?
I don’t think there is any one experience that I specifically learned the most from. You learn from mistakes. You can’t really know what not to do unless you’ve made the mistake yourself. Following that train of thought, I definitely made more than my fair share of mistake during a recent recital, and while I feel terrible, I learned from every mistake. - What actions are you taking to realize your vision? Are you consistently taking action?
- How well do you put things in context? Are you able to easily respond to changes in your environment? What’s your best example?
I always like to take a step back and look at something from multiple perspectives. There is never 1 answer to anything. This keeps me pretty open minded, so change doesn’t bother me at all. - What is your plan to continually grow and evolve? How have you grown or evolved in there past year or three?
My plan is to always be in a position where I can learn. Whether that be pursuing a degree, or actively working a job. If not actively a part of something, then i’m not accomplishing anything and therefore definitely not growing. - How easy is it for you to reach out to others to ask for support and to offer help?
I am always willing to be there to listen to someone’s issues, or help relieve or deal with some of their stresses. Unfortunately I am not a wealth of wise life knowledge and facts, so I might not always have an answer to most things, or even something to say, but I’ll definitely, quietly, be there if you need me.
Asking for help is definitely something I don’t like to do. Asking for anything ever makes me highly uncomfortable. - How are you inspiring others to join and/or support your mission in order to create a financially sustainable enterprise that allows you to live your gift and contribute something valuable to society? – If you aren’t currently, how do you intend to?
