AMA — How My Failed Music Career Led Me To Succeed As A Web Developer

Same was I.

Everything changed when I started taking a different approach to get where I wanted to be.

For me, it all began with building websites for my musician friends.

Fast-forward to today… It amazes me the amount of musicians who work in tech.

This is not a coincidence.

Musicians are greatly equipped to succeed in tech and entrepreneurial roles.

After six years of earning a living as a web developer, I can confidently say that musicians are some of the intelligent and adaptable people I’ve encountered in any field, particularly shining in tech and entrepreneurship roles.

Here’s a quick story of how I struck gold as a starving musician

The Toughest Gig I’ve Ever Had — Being An Inmigrant

I pursued a music career for 13 years and starved.

Most musicians I know—or have ever met—are at best somewhat struggling financially.

I was struggling…

“Making it” in the music industry is crazy hardcore, but on top of that, I was a refugee in the US who fled from Venezuela’s dictatorial narco government in 2017..

I had no money, family, friends, or network in the US. I was shy, inexperienced, and didn’t speak English.

I had no choice but to play the bad hand life dealt me.

I worked in construction mostly, putting in brutal hours to sustain myself, and occasionally, I’d gig with people I contacted on Craigslist—Nothing serious, all punks.

So, in an effort to align with my music goals and move away from the soul-sucking labor jobs, I decided to promote individual guitar teaching lessons.

I printed a hundred flyers and handed them out around my community.

10% response rate. 0% conversions.

Then, I posted on Craigslist, and after a few messages with three or four people, I finally landed my first guitar student.

Then, I posted on Craigslist and after some back and forth with people who reached out, I finally landed my first guitar student.

So I thought to myself:

“An online presence costs me very little and gets me students. I should double down on this.”

But I recognized that I had a shady online presence. Who would want to take classes from a random guy, anyway?

I had to fix that.

So, I decided to buy Bandzoogle’s website builder service for musicians. And yeah, sure, it did the trick, but my website did not stand out. The platform didn’t allow for much customization, so I was tied to whatever the template and platform offered.

“I want my guitar teaching lessons website to stand out. How difficult can it be to build your own website?” — I thought.

Diving Deep Down Into Web Development Without Knowing It

I started learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript and fell in love with it.

It was as challenging and magical as making music. I’d spend tons of time learning web development and hours would often fly by.

Moreover, as I progressed, I started to notice the universe of things I could build and put out into the world with minimal capital.

I could make an impact.

So, I dropped the individual guitar teaching lessons, which was an impossible business model to scale due to being bound by physical location and time, and devoted my efforts to making websites for my fellow musicians.

When Everything Changed

Fast-forward 18 months and several ugly websites later, I landed my first web developer job at a small software development agency headquartered in Wynwood, Miami.

It all then changed drastically for me.

• I stopped working suck soul labor jobs (construction, fast food, warehouses, cleaning)
• I started enjoying a healthy work environment with smart people
• My opinion and creative insights were considered to make meaningful decisions at work

But here comes the best part of it all:

I wasn’t broke anymore

• I moved to an apartment with my girl (we were living in a room before)
• I started helping out mom and dad in Venezuela
• I bought some audio gear
• I had weekends off so I could make music
• I started to save money

Throughout these years, I’ve worked on maintaining and building apps for small and medium-to-big startups in e-commerce, real estate, boating, sports, among others. Just recently, I started working full-time at my web development and web design agency helping entrepreneurs build their MVPs.

However, one thing that always caught my attention was amount of musicians working in tech, either as web designers, software developers, product managers, marketing, etc.

Which tells me musicians are very well equipped to succeed in tech and entrepreneurial roles.

So, if you are a musician struggling financially, why don’t you pursue a career that allows you to work and fund your music on your terms?

If this post and story struck a chord with you, please feel free to ask me anything, and I’ll give you the best helpful and resourceful answer I can.