As a pianist you will come to know failure as much or even more than you will know success. As with any artist, you will face rejection and setbacks in the most cruel, subjective, confusing, and not to say the least, the most contradicting of ways. The trick, here, is to realize that all these denied opportunities are not meant to set you back any more than they are to push you forward. The term “setback” is confusing because while failures are meant to be denied attempts at success, much of popular culture promotes failure as catalysts of success and stepping stones to a brighter opening.
The important question to ask then, is just how do we deal with failure and rejection after it happens again and again? Will we ever run out of resilience? Will we reach a breaking point and give up? I think I’ve learned over the years that if you love something or someone enough, you must fight for it and defend it. There goes a saying that we must not push too hard because if something is meant to happen then it will. But what happens when something appears too unlikely, yet we are pushed down from it time and time again?
I love the piano and I love what I do when I teach, so I am determined to spend the rest of my life fighting for it. If you are an artist you will agree that your art is one of— if not the most—sacred aspects of your life. Your art must be preserved within yourself before you share it with others.
Failures are not representations of your competence, talent, and most of all, love for your art. Failure is simply a direction you’re pushed toward, from which you should continue to seek further contentment and fulfilment with your art. Embrace all sides of it.