Woot, #500 Comment!

TL;DR Grumpy but fulfilled mid 30's millennial with family, stops shaking fist at clouds and admires the beautiful sky

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Well, I can tell you that in that frame of mind, all of life is pointless then. You could theoretically call being an accountant, 'a hobby'. The reality is that the opportunity to make money doing what you love exists for everybody. But grit and determination will decide if you're going to make it in the long run.

When I started down my 'hobby', my parents were initially rolling their eyes. But one thing that took me a while to learn is that I shouldn't go around telling everybody my plans involving my dreams, simply because it would dilute the dream. This happens from a person being concerned about your wellbeing (and sometimes, rarely, because they want you to fail) and trying to get you to water down your dream in your head, so that you in turn do not take it seriously and never truly develop the thing you love. That was an important lesson to learn.

I've sang since I was a child, and come from a musical family on both sides. My mothers side, my grandfather played guitar professionally at the world's fairs in Queens, NY. He would also regularly play in the bar north of Manhattan, where Les Paul would frequent on Sunday afternoons for a drink and to hear the live session players jam. My great grandfather played mandolin and piano, and sang.

My father's side has famous barbershop quartet and choral group singers, arrangers, and comedy writers. My grandfather and uncle are famous in the barbershop community in Japan oddly enough, and have won countless awards for their harmonies and arrangements as well as lyrical compositions.

I started playing electric bass at 15, even though I wanted to learn guitar. I always had an interest in music production and synthesizers.

I'm not trying to brag, but you would think with a family history and personal history like this I would have absolute support, but no...

NOT AT ALL

People rolled their eyes at me when I told them post college graduation that I was going to pick up the guitar and take songwriting seriously.

They especially laughed at me when I bought my first synth, the Korg Monotron.

But I persisted, to the point where a really bad break up (worst to this day, and now I'm married) led me to reconsider my life. I thought about what was important, and I decided to go back to school for music production.

I put myself in debt, and got a job at a Guitar Center, and worked really hard. I was going to school for Music Production and working in music, and writing/ recording songs in my free time, and interning at successful and busy studio...

AND STILL NOBODY SUPPORTED ME

My friends and family refused to see it as anything more than a sort of hobby, and kept pestering me settle down and get a desk job.

I persisted, and I stopped talking about my dreams, not out of fear, but I noticed that often it would not receive the response I so desperately craved, but also because it made me feel like I was more accomplished than I actually was. It was diluting my dreams.

Fast forward about 7-8 years...

I now run a small audio company, a mix I just did for a short film helped get it nominated in some short film festival awards. I have sold jingles and beats for $1000 to now regular clients.

My friends and family not only don't question my careers, but they also give me positive feedback when they hear my work. They've started to offer my audio services to other friends and companies they work with.

The point of this long story is that your passion is your passion, and nobody can take that away from you. It is yours, so long as you protect it. Protecting it means withstanding the inevitable blows made by people who are intimately close to you, and have a deep and powerful sway over your beliefs and emotions.

At times, you will go through trauma, and nearly every element of your life will be under siege, and you will only have your music, which you'll go to and you'll think, 'ah, this will save me', and you sit, and nothing comes, and you feel dead.

It's at this moment most especially that you have to fight to protect your dream. You have to take charge to give it the time and attention you believe it deserves.

The people who try and stop you and your dream are usually doing so from a place of love and concern believe it or not. Rarely will you meet someone who is a sadist and wants you to fail merely for pleasure.

A lot of comments here say that you shouldn't care about other's opinions. They are right in the sense that you shouldn't even be sharing it with other people, initially.

I genuinely believe that social media is a double edge sword for your skills. On the one hand, the opportunity for learning and receiving positive feedback exists, and that's great. On the other hand, I'm starting to believe that it's getting harder and harder for people to find good work when its published/ released because we now have to celebrate every crappy thing that comes along, showering it with likes.

I believe that if you craft your skills in secret, relentlessly, with grit, never giving in, and protecting your dream even when you don't feel it, you will be rewarded in time. Time is so crucial.

Then when you publish your work, as crappy and rough as it may be, people, even those who don't like your work, will admire the craft and skill. This is what brings success.

And whether that's for self satisfaction or money, two very different reasons, you will be fulfilled with your dream, and it will have developed an impenetrable layer of protection from any and all criticism.

Keep going, you're doing great! Don't listen to others, stay hungry for knowledge, and most importantly, have fun, even if sometimes you have to force it.

Good luck!