I've thought so much about giving up, Going back to a regular job. I dealt with the same thing as a teen. Wanting to give up on art.

It seemed like everyone around me was trying to make me feel bad about my art as a teen. I'd stay up all night drawing, Then go to school the next day, Then my part-time job afterward. It was hard.
I often felt discouraged because I wasn't improving as fast as I wanted to.
We all have feelings like this at times.
We all want to be that "lucky" person that strikes gold immediately; They become famous, Everyone knows their name. And their life seems immensely exciting.

I've figured out the secret to "luck."

Life is like gambling, Sometimes you spin the wheel once, And win it all! But most the time you won't win the first or even the second time. You keep putting money (Money+Time+Effort) Into the machine of life to see if you won.

We see people every day with incredible talent, Not making ends meet. While we see others, who appear to be less talented making millions.

As a teen I desperately wanted anything and everything to show off my art, To make a name for myself.
I'd attend every art show, I'd make tons of artwork every single show, "Maxing Out" my slots.
But nothing seemed to happen.

I kept expecting opportunities to fall into my lap because I was putting myself out there. I was showing people that I could draw, That I could create and In My eyes those creations were valuable.

No one else saw it.
Except for my high school art teacher, Who kept reminding me that I would fail a lot as an artist. She told me no matter how good my art was; I would still lose shows, I would still be hated by people. Every time I wanted to give up because yet again I wasn't noticed. She would remind me, That I'm not very skilled at what I do.

But I have something that others don't.
And that's passion.

Again I continued to play the gamble of life.
And continued to lose...

Increases your chances for that win

In a drawing, Who is more likely to win? The person with more tickets in the bowl? Or the person with one in each bowl? The one with more tickets in the one bowl, Why?
Because if there are three bowls with 200 tickets, And you place one ticket per bowl. Your chances of winning for each bowl Are 1 in 200.
But if you put your three tickets in one of the 200 bowls. You have a 3 in 200 chance. Which gives you a better chance.

You Should diversify to an extent

I'm realizing now that I have the whole "diversify " thing all wrong.
You shouldn't diversify that much.
Unless of course, you have a lot of resources to do so.
When I was doing my Kindle book business, My E-commerce store, My shirt store and my coloring books.
I was very well diversified.
But I was also stretching myself so thin that I wasn't making much Because my competitors were able to easily stomp all over me.

Now that I'm doing a blog And My Shirt store, I"m making much better money. And things are more manageable.
I hope to eventually hire enough people that I can do coloring books too.
But when I "diversify" my business I can do that by putting my designs on other sites, Like red bubble and Cafepress.
It doesn't take much extra work Because the products already exist. I just have to upload them.
Because I'm so dedicated to what I do, Some extra opportunities have fallen into my lap. Like I'm in a special program that will give me a ton of extra products on Amazon. But I can't go into much detail.

Most people GIve up

That's another reason why you should go all in! A lot of people will scratch the surface of many things, But rarely do people dedicate time and effort to it, Although you also have to realistically decide if it's worth the extra effort.

If you want those special opportunities, you often have to do what most people won't. For the Merch program, I had to apply three times to get in. Most people would have given up at one; Some people may not have applied at all.
A lot of people won't pay for tools for their business, I do within reason of course, And I see a huge benefit from doing so.

LOOK For them!

Instead of pouting, Use handy-dandy Google and search for what you want. Go about your day, Looking for opportunities, Try something new.
When you have a problem. It's always there, In the back of your head without you realizing it. Sometimes it takes a new environment or experience to bring a solution to light. And sometimes it may not relate to whatever you are doing. This is why workaholics often have the same ideas, Over and over. Because they aren't expanding their horizons.

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