Focusing & Mastering On One Thing

[ahmet sukru]

Hi,
I am about to make a critical career choice.
I searched my life purpose for years,
Recently I watched all videos of Leo and they helped me a lot,
Now I took life purpose course (that is helping me a lot too)
But "focusing and mastering on just one thing" idea made a little crisis in me, because I was just starting a system that focusing on two things. I want to discuss if this "focusing on one thing" is unquestionable rule or are there any gray areas?
 All the opinions are valuable, I will try to keep it simple and short as possible 

My first passion was strategy games from early childhood, I was pretty good at chess and pc strategy games. 
I studied computer engineering at college ( I don't even remember why, probably because I loved computer games)
I became pretty succesful on strategy pc-gaming while I was at university. I was at top 3 on my country. Even though I was passionate and really good at gaming, the outcome seem unsatisfying to me. I didn't want to play games and die all my life even if I make money, so I shifted my interest to something more meaningful and I interested art as a hobby.
After school I became a programmer for a couple of years but I HATED that job. I was missing that excitement when I was playing strategy games. Then I said I will not do anything that is not giving me that excitement and quited my job and started searching. 
So I started to think about being an artist.

I was playing guitar for a while. Even though I was not talented at all, I trained like fucking crazy so I became guitar teacher. But then I realized teaching was not my thing and I was making so little money. I was interesting on "creating" art more. I started training on vocal and started writing poems to make my own music. Then my vocal teacher convinced me expecting direct return by creating songs is too risky and challenging, you are sacrificing your art to make money at some point. After all you need money to publish your albums etc. and music industry is really disgusting in my country.

At that time I was making video clips for my recordings and I thought cinema would be nice. Then I worked on movie making for 1-2 years. I learned a lot about visual expression but work conditions were heavy, I had time issues and still couldn't make good money and clearly cinema was not my ultimate life purpose. So I said "if I can't make good money and set time for music, why the hell I am doing this?" and quited that too

Then I started to training on animation because animation seem the area I can combine all my accumulated skills. More fun and high in income than being a cinema worker.
So I spent a time like 1-2 year next to my family and made animation video clips for my music for portfolio and learning the job. I wanted to promote my music too at the same time by those clips.
Animation is fine and fun really, but as I was working on my projects and doing life purpose course I realized songwriting/singing is my ultimate life purpose without a doubt. Finally I am certain on this. I started to feel that magical excitement that I had playing strategy games as I publish my songs. Actually I've been certain for a long time but I had fears and my vocal teacher had a big impact on me. 

But I spent so much time and consumed my resources already. I don't see anything impossible really, I believe I can be a songwriter/musician and make money from it even in my country. But I am aware that it is a long process, I shouldn't expect to make 2-3 songs and immediately start to make money. I should make long-time deliberate working plan until make it happen. So I planned making money from animation and working on my music would be a good idea. I will look for a job on animation after my last project finish this month. 
But this approach contradicts "focus and master just one thing" idea . I agree with this idea and I would really love to focus on just my music like a prayer, but really seems like there is no way money return in short term as I said. 

So, do you think it is ok to be divided on two different areas in this situation? 

Edited October 29, 2017 by ahmet sukru
spelling

[BjarkeT]

The best thing I recommend is to chose the thing that intereste you the most and that you are most skilled in and then try to become really good at it some research shows it's only after you have become extremely good at it that's is when you will have passion for it(and a lot of other advantages including a financial advantage) if you want more information on this I recommend reading so good they can't ignore you by cal newport and if you are interested in how you become so good they can't ignore you i recommend reading deep work by the same author

Edited October 29, 2017 by BjarkeT

[ahmet sukru]

1 hour ago, BjarkeT said:

The best thing I recommend is to chose the thing that intereste you the most and that you are most skilled in and then try to become really good at it some research shows it's only after you have become extremely good at it that's is when you will have passion for it(and a lot of other advantages including a financial advantage) if you want more information on this I recommend reading so good they can't ignore you by cal newport and if you are interested in how you become so good they can't ignore you i recommend reading deep work by the same author

Thank you for advice
But the problem is not what should I choose at this point. I am most interesting in songwriting&singing , this is clear. I already spent years on this to improve my skills. Right now I came to the point just to creation point and I am so excited. 
The problem is I need at least 2 more years or so deliberate creation to start making money in this area at best. Because of this, I am working on animation at the same time just to make money. But as I said, this is turning into focusing on two things. I wonder if this division will be disadvantage for me..
I will read the book by the way.. thank you

[Pelin]

@ahmet sukru Hi, nice to see someone from Turkey here

I can see why you're disappointed in our country, but all the world is the same. Unless you manipulate people, it's nearly impossible to earn big amounts of money through art and music. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't pursue it. Not everyone becomes Eric Clapton but millions of people earn money by making music. Some street musicians make more money than white collars. 

Side jobs may become a real job at the end, there are lots of examples of it, but you need more energy, more focus and you should learn not to care about the opinions of people like your trainer or your family. Haruki Murakami, for example, ran a bar and he wrote his first novel after he closed the bar at dawn. Everyday, he wrote for 4-5 hours in the morning and sacrificed his sleep. Only after he became famous as a writer he turned to writing as a full-time job. So it's doable but you need great willpower. 

[ahmet sukru]

@Pelin hey, nice to see you too

You are right, and it seems like this is my best shot. Because I spent years and lots of money and changed lots of jobs all those years just to see what can I do. If I had all those insights 5 years ago, I could go directly to the music, but now I need to make money while doing this. (of course I have no regrets, those experiences are the most precious)

I guess Leo did the same thing with internet marketing & actualized.org
Maybe he didn't mean "don't work on two things at the same time" ,
Maybe he meant "have just one mastery area"
It seems to me either I will be mediocre in both areas or I will nail both