Getting started sounds so easy – but for millions of aspiring artists and creatives, the uncertainty of the path forward presents a very real challenge. So, we wanted to gather some artists and creatives we admire to open up about their experience and how they think about whether they should have started sooner or waited for a better time.

Allie Spurlock

Though I’ve been making art my whole life, it has only contributed to my income for the last few years. I’m glad that I came to work in the art world later on, it gave me a chance to develop who I am as person and an artist and build my work ethic doing other jobs. Read more>>

David Eizi

Not a lot of people know but I started writing music because I thought GarageBand was a game. I got an iPhone when I was 15 and saw that little guitar on the GarageBand icon and immediately thought it was another game like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but you had to make the songs. Read more>>

Misa Akamatsu

If I could go back in time, I wish I had started my creative career earlier.I used to think that, but I don’t think that anymore right now. When I was a child, I loved touching my mother’s hair and playing with her makeup tools. Read more>>

Demillion Roby

Before I decided to start building the pop star wannabe brand, I was planning on moving to New York to pursue a career in musical theater. When I moved to Nashville, I came here to get a BFA in musical theater at Belmont University. Read more>>

Yella Vanella

When I think back to when I started my career, I was determined to have a business that will create opportunities to give back worldwide. Had I wish I started sooner? No. Sometimes, I think about what could have happen, but there is nothing I can do about that. Read more>>

Kelly Quinn

I guess you could actually say I started very young. My mom got me involved in modeling and acting when I was about 4 years old. I had an agent and everything and remember making many drives up from San Diego to LA for various auditions. Read more>>

Apollo Maréchal

I am a person who tries to never have any regrets in life. Although, I will say that starting my career in music as late as I did would be my only regret so far. Read more>>

Jenna Irene

Part of me really wishes I did start my career as an artist earlier or went to school full time for performing arts and music. I wish I could’ve started releasing music sooner even when I got out of High School but I wouldn’t be the same artist as I am now! Read more>>

Zanielle Foxcroft

I don’t! What I learned and experienced working in jobs like visual merchandising and marketing taught me a lot about running my own business. Read more>>

Shaina Manuel

More than anything, I wish I’d known sooner that I wanted to pursue a creative career like the one I find myself in now! However, I also recognize that this is a double-edged sword. Read more>>

Vincent Brue

I definitely wish I had started playing music much earlier than I did. Music has always been my first love and for so many years growing up, all I wanted to do was write songs and start a band but I didn’t know how to play any instruments and I was way too shy to sing (I was literally too shy to talk most of the time back then). Read more>>

Enjoli Gavin-Rudd

Well I’ve always been creative, and it has been my goal as a career. If I could go back in time, I think I’d still start my balloon styling career when I did. I began my journey into balloon styling after the birth of my son, transitioning from a career in theater. Read more>>

Michaelan Mena

I never imagined I’d become an artist. It wasn’t something I pursued or believed I had a talent for. My background is in the entertainment industry; I was an Emmy-nominated TV producer for over a decade in NYC and LA, working with major networks like MTV and Hallmark Channel. Read more>>

Lakika Scott

If I could go back in time, I would have obtained a degree in art/art history while in college. After a semester of graphic design and then art history, I changed my major (to Family and Consumer Sciences) in order to be more “employable”. Read more>>

Josh Rivers

I think, in a away, I started as early as I could because I was experiencing the world that I write songs about now. I’m not sure I would have much to write about otherwise. The story has to be lived through first before you can talk about it. Read more>>

Reagan Kathryn

I lived the first half of my life afraid. I can still remember secretly getting the scripts for a theatre audition for a performing arts high school, and practicing the Jaberwoky monologue in my bed late at night when I was certain no one could hear me – but then never making my way to the actual audition. Read more>>

Leon Zai

This is such a loaded question. Currently, I have 3 songs out as an artist and maybe 30 as a songwriter. However I’ve been singing since I could talk and started writing songs as a teenager so I’ve been doing this for a minute. Read more>>

Jazmyn Young

I definitely wish I would have started sooner. Honestly, I should’ve started in college. I could be a lot farther ahead in my content creation career. Read more>>

Merideth Hite Estevez

I believe everyone is creative from the moment they arrive here on earth. As a kid, I was deeply connected to that creative flow. I would lie on the floor of my childhood bedroom in rural SC and listen to classical music, longing to know what made the music so beautiful. Read more>>

Cami Taleisnik

Im an actor, singer and dancer, but I’m also an architect. I thought that theater was just my hobby and I didn’t want to make a living out of that, so I’ve studied architecture. In my country is a 6 years degree. Read more>>