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.

Sharde Lee

I did start my career sooner but I wish I would have stayed consistent. I would be further along in my career now. It was a great learning experience for me. Read more>>

Dom Fountain

No,but for good reason,I started my creative path when a door in my life closed,as the saying goes,one door closes and another one opens. Read more>>

Christine Sansbury

I spent years not painting and instead ruminating on this gigantic existential question: Am I really an artist? Even though it was easy for anyone on the outside to see that I was, internally, it felt like a humongous wall that I couldn’t peek around. Read more>>

The Too Late

A lot of people ask where the name of our band ‘The Too Late’ came from and if it was because we started gigging and producing music in our mid 20’s. Despite this, it wasn’t actually the reason for the name of the band. Read more>>

Vaishalini Sitaraman

Sometimes I do wish I had started earlier. I remember somebody showing me a casting call for some Disney thing when I was in school and I begged my dad to let me go be a Disney star so I could be a popstar later and he obviously said no because that’s a pretty difficult environment for someone to go through their adolescent years. Read more>>

Brandon Logan

Well I just wish I didn’t give up on it so soon. I wasnt disciplined just didn’t think I was worth investing that much into myself Read more>>

Julie Hume

I had an interesting conversation with the members of an affinity group at the Folk Alliance International Conference this past week. We were discussing being a caregiver and the challenges and concessions that come with it. Read more>>

A.M. McPherson

I loved taking art classes in high school, specifically ceramics and photography (I promise there’s a point to this story, stick with me here). The freedom to express myself, to get lost in an art endeavor, was therapeutic and meditative. Read more>>

Sarah Sido

As someone who has had two creative careers, first as an actress, and now as a photographer, I feel like I’ve experienced both the scenario of being very young in a career and of coming to something later, with more life experience under my belt. Read more>>

Jeshua Logsdon

Since I was very young, I have always been a singer and performer whether on a jamboree stage, performing at a fair, singing the national anthem at a dirt track race, or the occasional school play/musical. Read more>>

Sheldon Dottery

I do wish I started my career as an author sooner yes. I have so many ideas for all sorts of novels, but of course my mind began to play tricks on me when I was working on this first novel. Read more>>

TaiRhe Turner

I don’t know if I “wish” I had started this music path sooner necessarily because I’m grateful for the journey I’ve been on. However, I do wish that I would’ve valued my exposure to music earlier in life better. Read more>>

Andrea Vahl

I had wanted to go into acting and comedy when I was in high school but my dad didn’t think that was really practical and didn’t want to pay for a drama major so I went into Engineering instead. Read more>>

Carla Cherry

I was 35 when I began submitting my poems for publication. I used to wish I could say that I had published several books by the age of 30, but I have grown to understand that our lives are meaningful no matter what age we are, and am happy with the way my journey is unfolding. Read more>>

Zhihan Qian

I do wish I had started my creative career sooner. During my undergraduate years, I was already a design student, but I often found myself hesitating on the industry’s edge due to self-doubt and various negative emotions. Read more>>

Kajé

I sometimes wish I started my creative career sooner because I would have more seniority in the game. However I would not have the same depth of experience to maintain all that the industry comes with. I am a lot wiser and less vulnerable. Read more>>

Franky Jebb

Yes and no. I struggle with this question. You hear all these stories of how comedians started and by 22 they were getting great spots and by 25 they were on the road and then all of a sudden they’re 30 and getting specials and that sort of thing. Read more>>

Chris Crofut

I definitely wish I would have started acting a lot sooner. I briefly started acting in background roles when I first started college. However, I eventually had to put that dream on the back burner because at the time I was living on my own and taking care of myself while going to school at the same time.. Read more>>

Helene AuYeung

I wish I had started selling pottery years ago. I started in 2016 and it was a hobby for many years. When I had my daughter in 2021, I started feeling the need to have a more serious creative outflow to deal with the new challenges of my new life as a mom. Read more>>

Jill Anna Ponasik

I’ve thought about this often, it’s one of those paradoxes that pop up in life. I feel most at home as a stage director in the rehearsal room, creating something with a team of artists. Read more>>