In many peoples' lives there come times of great hardship. We know it is part of life and we try to be philosophical about, even if through clenched teeth. But it is the quality of our efforts to work through these times of turmoil and even disaster that are what help to define us as people.

While I'm not going to go long into the aspects of individual character, it is important that we understand the storms in life, whether actual (as in hurricanes and tornadoes, the death of loved ones), or self induced (as in drug and alcohol abuse, lack of motivation, etc.), do indeed help shape the nature and content of our character. How we respond to troubled times is a direct result of the kind of person we choose to be, the kind of character we embrace, the degree to which we allow such turmoil to disrupt the deeper aspects of our journey through life.

I have often said that I would never counsel anyone to pursue a life in music. It is such a hard road to travel, even for talented individuals who really do deserve to be given the attention we lavish on many entertainers who do not really have much talent at all, yet are quite famous and well known. They just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I know that sounds really trite. Oh, you say, that is so clichéd a thing to say. No, in fact, it is nothing of the sort. Many people have achieved fame and notoriety simply for being "discovered" because someone with the right connections happened to stumble upon them - often quite by accident through circumstances or a series of events that were not planned, yet occurred and brought them to that place at that specific time to hear the artist perform (perhaps giving a rarely great performance).

We cannot concern ourselves with whether or not someone deserves that break, the attention, the fame. Real talent will prevail. Hacks and people without any real talent will inevitably disappear and be forgot (except for maybe that one "hit single"). These are the proverbial flash in the pan acts that the entertainment industry consumes and spits out and discards when they've served their purpose and no longer matter.

If someone manages to have endurance in the music industry, it is because they have learned to play the game - especially if their talent is marginal at best. We all scratch our heads and wonder how a Brittany Spears or Tracii Guns or, name your favourite really bad group, ever managed to get signed, promoted and succeed in having any kind of enduring career in the first place.

Well, somebody liked them, backed them, supported them, sold them, and in the case of a Brittany Spears, made sure they worked hard to stay "on top". Granted, I'm ragging a bit on Spears, who, when she isn't drug addled, actually can sing - even if I question the quality of the music she and her producers choose, and the messages they send through that music to a young and adoring audience. But then, there's that character issue again.

I have survived in the business because I am stubborn. But even more important than my hard headed position is the fact that I can deliver the goods, so to speak. I can play in multiple styles well, I learn arrangements quickly, have experience on both sides of the glass in studio, have a long touring credential and have demonstrated the ability to show up on time, prepared and sober to all engagements to which I am contracted.

Almost as important as this is the fact that I have managed to survive many disastrous situations and not allowed them to deter me from continuing to take the occasional calculated risk when I am presented with a new client or situation. Of course I weigh the benefits against the unknowns. How well prepared am I to survive this situation if it collapses and I find myself in the middle of nowhere with all my gear and no way home?

Oh, it's happened. And if you are a working musician and it has not yet happened, it will. Consider this fair warning.

Preparation is critical to ensuring survival and perseverance in this industry. Even if you are a successful recording artist and have tour buses and roadies and all the junk that hangs on to that, you can still be faced with disasters and set backs that can potentially destroy you and your career.

The worst case scenario is the fatal accident. Buddy Holly and Lynyrd Skynyrd suffered airplane accidents. Buddy died. Lynyrd Skynyrd lost important members. For obvious reasons, Buddy's career was over. But Skynyrd persevered after recovering and decided to press forward with new members, surviving even into today. And the Allman Brothers Band also suffered two losses in a year. They, too, managed to recover and press forward, even into today. More stories abound, I'm sure.

I've been fired, stranded, cut out, not hired, waived off from even auditioning, stabbed in the back, stiffed on pay, stiffed on a gig (even as we were setting up on the stage), and experienced more horrible situations than I can remember. Most of these were early on in my life in music. But I've also been hired sight unseen because of my reputation, hired because I could transpose a song on the spot and pass most auditions I come to.

As I grew older, wiser and smarter through these experiences, they diminished in frequency and even largely ceased, except in the rare instances that do occur, most often because circumstances outside the band leader's control, even the venue. Stuff happens and it is often that it is nobody's fault. You just have to know how to deal with it and then move forward.

In some cases, people won't hire me because I can be expensive. I require a certain compensation. I've got the credentials to do this in most cases. It will help weed out the people who can't or don't want to pay for experience.

There are people I will no longer work with because they have proved to be unreliable, both as band mates and/or employers. But in all situations, I almost always require written agreements. I'm a contract player. You hire me...you will be required to put the terms and conditions in writing - or I'll do it for you. And I will not play a note until the paper is signed and notarized - all nice and legal.

In order to persevere, you are going to have to view music as a business. A lot of musicians don't like to think about that. They're the ones who can't seem to get past the bars and bad road tours, get marginal pay, sometimes getting stiffed altogether. And they're almost always broke, especially between gigs and paychecks.

A handshake used to be enough. But it hasn't been the case for a long time. I cover some of the business aspects in a series of articles on business. so I won't go into detail here, except to say that in order to have longevity in any venture or career you wish to pursue, you better know the ropes - or learn them from someone who knows and is willing to help. If you don't, you will get stepped on, screwed and chewed up and spit out and left by the side of the road, another casualty of the music business.

In order to persevere, you better know who you are. This isn't a metaphysical suggestion or idea. You really need to know what makes you tick, why you do what you do, why you want to live this tough life, and have the intelligence to learn quickly how to avoid problematic situations and circumstances.

You need to know your worth. You must know whether or not you really are a good guitar player, bass player, drummer, keyboard/pianist or whatever instrument it is you play. You need an objective ear to give you an honest assessment of your current abilities, and who can identify what you lack, what you will need to do to improve and be competitive in your market, on your instrument, so you can get the good gigs, the good income, the solid and honourable contracts that will help ensure you actually make a living wage so you can continue to contribute to the music you so love to play.

But if you really want to persevere in anything, you have to know it is where you belong. Thinking, feeling, believing, wanting, desiring, hoping and praying you belong is not enough, ever. These are all based in a perception, not factual conclusions based on empirical evidence that you really should be in your chosen field.

We all have natural talent in something. But that does not automatically translate to purposefully pursuing that talent. I'm an artist, college educated in same, but when I went to work as an artist, I grew to hate it. Try as I might, I couldn't reconcile myself to ideas that were stupid, pointless and tasks that served no purpose. I was unable to subsume my innate ability to recognize an idea was good from one that was bad.

This isn't ego, it is a knowing that my superior's ideas or approach were not going to get the kind of result they would have preferred. There are people who have an inborn ability to recognize what does and does not work in their area of specialization. In Art, I happen to be one of those people. But because I was merely a newbie droid, I was not allowed any meaningful input to influence the changes. And, God forbid if I took any initiative and created a presentation on my own time and brought it in to show to my boss or the client. They did not want that. And I had no interest in prostituting my art - or patiently toiling for five years or more to become a person my superiors might actually listen to when it came to creative input. So we mutually agreed it was not a good fit.

That was my first and last job as a professional artist.

I then (re)turned to music. And over the course of a few years found that I could indeed deal with the garbage you deal with, and that my input mattered, was listened to, and even followed. I didn't have to wait five years to be seen as having relevant and materially beneficial input to the musical ideas and plans. The same innate abilities I have as an artist translate into music. Music is just another expressive form of art to me; there is no difference, practically speaking, in my mind. So what works in the graphic art field, works in music - at least for me.

Again, it isn't about ego. What I mean is simply that ego is no substitute for real talent. And I grant that we all have an ego, it is what keeps us going. It is the internal belief in ourselves, rooted in the ego, that makes us get out of bed in the morning with the drive to succeed in whatever it is we have planned for the day, and in the grander scheme, our lives.

And that requires perseverance. If we are to succeed in life we must recognize that there are many elements in our psyche, our mind, heart, soul and spirit, that contribute to the overall whole. It is a kind of "the sum is greater than the parts" situation. If these aspects of your being are not aligned and in agreement as to who you are, what you are and what you are doing with your life, you will be "conflicted", internally. And that means that if you are going to succeed, you must persevere through all the internal and external battles you face. You won't win them all, but you will eventually win the majority of these trials and tribulations life throws at all of us.

We have to change our view about why troubles and setbacks, hardships and failure, are in our lives. And we have to change our view about how we are going to face them, not merely "deal" with them, but actually face them and see they are challenges that are necessary to forge our character - yep, there's that word again, that condition - and in forging our character, we are being shaped and moulded into the person we hopefully want to be, dream of being, have aspired to be since we were young.

Nobody says as a kid, "I want to grow up to be a heroin addict", or "I want to grow up to be a complete failure". It isn't in our nature to believe anything like that when we're kids. As kids, we are dreamers and creators of worlds known only to ourselves and anyone we choose to share them with. As we grow, these dreams and fantasies are tempered by life and learning.

If we are to hold on to our dreams, we must persevere through these early trials. And we must do the things, learn the stuff necessary to ensure we grow up to be the astronaut, the doctor, the actor, the musician, the writer or artist we envisioned ourselves becoming. And for me, it was always going to be a life in art, the musical arts to be precise.

I've endured numerous setbacks, drug addiction, failure and a host of other things that discourage lesser determined people from continuing. But I didn't quit. I fought my way through the bad stuff, overcoming it, worked through the mental and emotional stuff to reach a place of feeling good about who and what I am, what I've accomplished, and arrived at a place, spiritually, that gives me peace in my heart. Any professional setbacks were in part due to not dealing with the mess that was my life. Having examined my life, and all the issues, then confronting them and resolving them, made it possible to finally have a firm foundation upon which to build a meaningful life and a strong and honest character.

There will always be "stuff" that happens. But a well grounded person will not be thrown into chaos when it does happen. They will recognize it as yet another one of life's challenges to be met and resolved, and then learn the means to do just that and move on, having one more life lesson learned, and which can become the inspiration for something beautiful - a testament of their perseverance through the darkness that comes into all our lives, but need not be a permanent condition.

So if you know with a deep knowing that cannot be easily explained that you belong in a given field, whatever profession it happens to be, persevere through all the garbage and tribulations. You are not alone. And it would help to find others who share your passion, even if not the same field, but the deeper sense of themselves as successful in their path. And you support one another and lift one another up, encourage one another.

And, together, you will persevere and attain your dreams.

It just may take longer than you originally thought.

Trust me on this: It will be worth all the work, the waiting, the tears, the hardship, the setbacks, everything that has happened in your life.