If you're in a band and you're struggling for recognition, it might not mean that you play terrible songs or are completely talentless. It might simply mean that you aren't focussed enough as a group. Picture this: four people surrounding a ball. All four of the people are connected to the ball with ropes and a harness that allows the ball to move with the people. Now picture all four people pulling in different directions. Picture one pulling forward, one pulling in the opposite direction, one pulling to the left and one pulling to the right.
Which way's that ball going to move? If all people are equally strong, nowhere. But if one's a little stronger than the others, it's going to go his way. But now picture the strong person is pulling the ball in whatever direction. And the other three are sitting on the ground. That's a TON of dead weight that Mr StrongGuy has to drag behind him. And he's bound to get tired.
Let's get more optimistic: picture one person gets up off the ground and goes in the same direction. Now Mr StrongGuy can pull with the same force, but Mr LazyGuy is helping, so they're pulling the ball and the other two lazy bastards a lot faster. And what happens now? Everyone gets up and moves in the same direction.
No matter how heavy that ball is, these four people will be able to move it as long as they're moving in the same direction. And once it's moving, it will be easier and easier to keep moving. Unless someone falls to the ground. It will be a bit difficult to get it over bumps in the road, but once it's moving and they get to a point where they can coast down hill, it's going to feel pretty damned good. If you haven't figured it out yet, the ball is your career, the momentum of your stardom.
And the people pulling the ball are you and your bandmates. You can be Mr StrongGuy, Mr LazyGuy or anyone else you wish to be. But if you're all pulling toward different goals, like if Johnny wants to get a song on a tv commercial but Billy wants to give away all of your music and doesn't want to make money at all, you might have serious issues with the directions that your band is going to go. Get focussed immediately with goal setting and other techniques so you don't waste your lives chasing separate dreams.
Michael Gulbin is the author of I Need to Be Famous.com, a free band promotion website catering to indie rock bands who need DIY promotion advice.