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.

Dexter Davis

I absolutely wish I would have started creating sooner, I believe I’d be further along in this endeavor if I had , obviously being a late bloomer isn’t that terrible, being a responsible parent to 3 children help my personal pursuits at bey , until I was able to focus all my efforts towards my what I’m doing today. Read more>>

Alex Savakis

I always had an interest in art and drawing. I didn’t consider art a viable career option. My professional experiences tell a whole different story. My creative career started the moment I earned a BFA in art history. Read more>>

Hitori

If I could go back in time I definitely would have started learning the business side of the music industry sooner. I began recording vocals when I was 17, and put out my first song on SoundCloud at age 19. It was not until I reached 22 that I truly started to understand the methodologies behind promotion, revenue growth, and distribution agreements. There were plenty of growing pains in the beginning from not understanding what equipment to record with, placing my songs on SoundCloud which do not have the same organic discovery reach as Apple Music or Spotify. Read more>>

Jessica Day Smith

This is a little bit of a sensitive topic for me I think. I was very serious about art when I was younger. My senior year of high school was spent at a boarding school for the arts, and I went on to study studio art in college. I got married in college, very young, and we didn’t wait all that long before starting our family. At 23 I was married, pregnant, and living in a new state after we moved for my husbands first job out of college. The exhaustion of pregnancy left me with little motivation to keep my artistic practice up. As my children were born, and I was the primary caretaker for them, I think it became easier to put my interests last. Read more>>

Gabby Ostuni

The short answer is yes, I have always felt I would be way further along if I had started pursuing acting sooner rather than later. But a more realistic and honest answer is that I started pursuing this career at the exact moment I needed to FOR ME. With acting, nothing is guaranteed. Like most creative careers, there’s no perfect formula to guarantee success. There are so many paths to follow in the pursuit of this career that it’s almost a personal journey in how you proceed. Read more>>

Ylan Ha

This topic really speaks to me, as I ask myself this question from time to time—even now. For those who don’t know, I started my creative career later in life. I was 26 and working as a quality analyst at a biopharmaceutical company. The pay was decent, and the work provided a good mental challenge. However, one thing was missing from my career equation: passion. I just couldn’t see myself working in the biotechnology field for the rest of my life, and I felt the need to search for that missing puzzle piece. With encouragement from my partner, friends, and art heroes, I went back to school and took art classes to build my fundamentals and start my creative career. Read more>>