The Idea of being “ready” is a barrier to your success. You don’t need to be ready, you need to be willing to dive in.
Soon after I graduated college I got a call from a drummer friend of mine to come play, i.e. audition, for a country artist. I said sure. Mainly because I had no idea what was going on.
He sent me the songs to learn, and I did my due diligence memorizing the songs as best as possible. I thought it would look weak if I walked in with notes or cheat sheets for the songs.
So I show up to the professional rehearsal space (my first time) with my amateur Peavey bass amp, a blue 1989 Fender Precision Plus and I’m not sure if I even owned a tuner pedal at that point.
When I walked in, the other musicians were swapping stories of their latest trips around the globe having toured with various country music stars. I had played an out of town gig once too…in Memphis, with a friend…for the bar tenders.
I was definitely intimidated by all these guys and thought about sneaking out during the down section of a chorus or something. But the exit door was in view of everyone, soooo.
Two weeks later I was on a plane with all of those people, traveling outside of the USA to play my instrument.
Stop waiting to be ready. Just get going.
