obstacle = opportunity

Great community y’all have here. And a powerful think tank. Feel like I have come across a goldmine. Just joined this week and looking for some guidance on the following. Could use some feedback + input. What am i not seeing. Something i have been thinking about a lot lately but will try to articulate it as simply and clearly as I can for sake of brevity.
I heard Blake’s podcast with Sam Ovens. And they talked about something very important. How to bridge the gap between art + commerce + creativity + business. I don’t think there are easy answers to this because they are not at all the same thing although can be integrated when different people are working together. You can argue there is elements of them in each other. But things get complex when temperaments, egos and personalities get involved.
A great band is also a successful corporate entity and a thriving business/brand that goes beyond generational trends, genres or styles. (eg. The Beatles)
A great business is a band of world class experts working together and thriving in the global marketplace + a master at building brand awareness. (eg. Nike)
A great artist is a master of public perception. He doesn’t just give people what they want. He gives them experiences they didn’t even know were possible. (eg. Picasso)
A great product/service solves peoples problems that they never even knew could be solved. Or makes their previous problems obsosolete and changes the playing field (eg. Netflix).
I feel like most people in the online space are playing small.
They prioritize current popularity over long-term legacy.
There’s nothing wrong with any that.
We all got bills to pay.
Yet when something feels like “anyone can do this” I lose interest. My viking thor hammer goes limp. I need challenge. I need the impossible. I need to move mountains.
But I feel like I am playing a different game. I have always had belief in my own abilities as a poet/songwriter/musician even before I was any good because I knew I would get good if I can just manifest what i heard in my head. i knew it would take time. I might even die still attempting and never quite achieving it…. like pursuing heaven or paradise on earth or something. Salvation. Yeah, complete fucking madness. I know. And a heavy burden to carry this kind of curse/gift yet like possessing the greatest drug you can imagine where all you have to do is close your eyes to get high.
All you wanna do is share it. For me that means the songs. These skills I have been pounding pavement with for decades. Forged in the fires of mordor. The pipleine is running hot and now just need to find a way to let it flow.
So that’s where the “business” comes in…
The creative process (for me) is selfish and the opposite of kumbaya. It is dirty, dark and dangerous. And deeply personal. It hurts like hell but the juice is worth the squeeze. Probably similar to what a fighter feels going against another beast in a cage. But it is also sacred. I don’t even really like talking about it. All my time not working on my own art is trying to focus on other things to save the juices. I don’t wanna study art or teach it. I just wanna create it.
So this is my dilemma.