What’s in a dream?  What does it mean to “sacrifice”?  When it comes to working hard, how hard is hard enough?  How do we plan for success when success is difficult to measure?

Or do we just enjoy the ride?

These are the questions I’m grappling with tonight.  I’m thinking about how I can chart my own course along my own unchartered waters in a journey that is anything but certain: my quest to become a world-class underground House Music producer and along the way elevate the underground music niche and dance culture that I care about.  

They say the harder you work, the luckier you get, and there’s no doubt that you need at least some luck in order to “make it”.  But how do you even measure that?  How do you know when you’ve “made it”?  Is it once you make a certain amount of money?  What if you care less about how much money you make than about making enough money to get to make the music you love while being able to meet your responsibilities as an adult?  Do you still put a number on success?  Or is success something that can’t be defined, something you never quite attain but that you can only see in the wake of your accomplishments—is success something you can’t prove, and only something you can observe the impact of?

I don’t know these answers yet.  What I do know is that I have a burning desire to become the best at what I do; to take my passion for underground Funky House to heights I can’t now imagine; to share with the world how this culture makes me feel every time I House Dance; to make as many people as possible lose their minds on dance floors everywhere as I DJ.  If I can take this feeling everywhere, maybe then I’ll be able to say, “I’ve succeeded”.

To get there, I will need to make truly world-class content.  I say content because my Dance Is A Feeling brand consists of more than just music—it’s about the music I make; the dancing videos I shoot; the feeling people feel when they hear my DJ mixes or catch me DJing at a live show.  But maybe it can be about so much more.  Maybe Dance Is A Feeling, through the dedication I put into it, can also inspire people to pursue their own dreams with the same dedication I’m about to pursue mine.   

Maybe if I share with you just how hard I’m willing to work, and if I show you that hard work each day, you’ll feel inspired to work just as hard at something you yourself love.  If that becomes my legacy, then all the great music and dance content you’ll enjoy along the way will be secondary to the fantastic journeys we’ll all help each other take.

Three hours and twenty-five minutes.  That’s the minimum amount of time I’m committing to my dream every single day of every single week of every single month and year for as long as it takes me to succeed.  Day jobs, part time jobs, friends, family, entertainment, sleep, and everything else that makes up modern life will somehow have to be reshaped to make room for those three hours and twenty-five minutes.  Somehow, come what may, nothing can get in the way.  I will make it happen, for me, for you, and for anyone that has or will ever have a dream.

I hope you’ll join me on, and enjoy with me, this ride.

Let’s begin.