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.

Shyloh Blake

This is a great question! I used to think about this all the time. I don’t know if I wish I started earlier, but I never wish I started later. I got into stand-up when I was almost 30 years old. Read more>>

MJ King

I do wish I had started my creative career earlier, but I am thankful for the journey. I have always been working as a freelance and commission based artist. Even when I was in high school I was creating custom paintings for friends and family members. Read more>>

Chris Jenkins

Absolutely! I was really late to the game, in my opinion. I didn’t start playing guitar until roughly college. Just noodled. Didn’t take it seriously until I wanted to start my old band in 2015. Learned a lot from that group regarding the ropes of playing out, connections, etc. Read more>>

Jessa Sky

I often used to think of this narrative for a long time. I even find myself if I am not in a “good” mental space criticizing myself and being “too hard on myself”, that “if only I started young.” Or “I wish I didn’t allow the bullies in junior high influence me to delete my YouTube channel. Read more>>

Alex Goransson

yes many times over and over again! But after a few years getting older and wiser (or that’s what I at least tell myself) I learned that everything comes at the right time for a reason. Even if I started as a kid doesn’t mean my career would be different, and I’m also so happy I got to try so many thing, struggle finding what I wanted to do before finding my true passion. i have learned so much from it, would say it has helped me a lot with acting and putting in the work. Read more>>

Lindsay Benjamin

Gosh, this question is complex because I did start out when I was young, but my ideas behind why I wanted to continue to stay in the creative field have constantly been in flux. I’ve always had this seesaw in my brain trying to decide what the right path is for me. I need and crave stability, so I’ve always sought out that type of career, boyfriend, friendship. But- what truly drives me, even if I decided to take a pause, has always been my art. Read more>>

Andrew Faulkner

My college degree is in Fine arts but it wasn’t until I was in my 50’s that I closed my design business to become a full time artist. I like to say that after 30 years of success in the graphic design field, I decided to get a real job and become a painter. Read more>>

Coby Sultan

Yes and no. My choices in life have all lead me to where I am today and i am just as proud of my decision to pursue soccer as a career as I am of my decision to take a step away from it after 3 years playing in Europe. My path to the present has been unique to say the least, and has allowed me to pursue my current creative career by presenting me with experiences to write about that are unique to me Read more>>

Maria Pendolino

I had wanted to be an actor since I was a young kid. I was totally addicted to Broadway musicals and plays. When I was 10 or 11 years old, I auditioned for community theatre productions of shows like The Sound of Music and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Read more>>

Danielle McCarthy

I do wish I had trusted in myself earlier to pursue this in a full time capacity. I started as a hobbyist in college and pursued an Etsy shop and did a few markets here and there. I am just now starting as a full time business owner and it has been so incredibly rewarding. Read more>>

Kayla Waller

I started early with my career in entertainment as a technician, which has helped me in the long run with my YouTube Channel called Waller Adventures. I do wish I had started my YouYube career earlier. Starting out I didn’t realize that it would be a very slow process. Read more>>

Justin Scott

I would say sooner, but when I say sooner, I just wish I would have stuck with it earlier. I’ve always known what I was meant to do. The early days were filled with a lot of off and ons. I would create for a year or so then start to feel like I was wasting time and quit for an extended period. It was really just a lack of confidence. It’s hard to continue creating something when nobody seems to care. Read more>>

Barbara Felix

The short answer: Yes! I think I can blame my late start on the lack of self-confidence mixed with a pinch of “fear of success” as well. I also had health issues from a car accident, so the ability to afford good insurance was of the utmost importance to me, and was a factor of how far I perceived that I could take my artistic pursuits. The “starving artist” story that I’d been told made me believe that I could not possibly afford to be an artist and adequately take care of my health long term. Read more>>

Marta Gwizdala

Yes, I wish I had started a little bit sooner, but I also believe that it’s never too late for anything. All the sad and good moments have led me to this moment of who I am now, and I like myself more now than before. Read more>>

Kate Maggart

I always knew I wanted to pursue a career in the arts. From a young age, it seemed the only logical path to take. There is simply no other industry that would and has brought me lifelong happiness and fulfillment. Read more>>

Chris Saunders

I have been doing theatre since I was kid, though I went through gaps here and there in my adult life where I didn’t do it for a while. Having started a theatre company in my 40s I often ask myself why I didn’t do this a decade or two earlier so it would be much more established by now. Read more>>

Mauricio Ballerini

Here in Brazil, art related jobs have always been frowned upon, people usually see them only as hobbies, parents usually incentivize kids to pursue a higher paying career, though my parents always helped me find what I wanted to do, I believe the whole cultural stigma around the art career kept me from starting right away. Read more>>

Jason Hanson

My creative career could not have been better timed. I knew I was an artist by the fourth grade, but I didn’t know all the skills I would need to operate as an artist in the big wide world. Read more>>

Mara Allison

Though I wish I started earlier as an artist, I can’t ignore the fact that my circumstances for many years dictated my profession. I was a single mom who didn’t get child support for 14 years so I needed steady income to provide for my sons. I had to put their needs over my desires first. I did what I thought was best for my family based on the situation I was in and I have no regrets. Read more>>

Rebecca BRUFF

Sometimes I wish I’d known earlier how satisfying it is to imagine and write, and re-write, and how gratifying it is to be with readers, to have rich and wonderful conversations, to hear that something I wrote or said actually touched someone or made a difference. At the same time, I’m aware that all the years and experiences that came first really shaped and prepared me for what I do now. Read more>>

Ronni Jay

There has never been a time when I wished I started my creative career sooner. I was a month shy of my 39th birthday when decided to go ahead and go for it. When I was younger I was full of fear and had to learn to be bold and do what I truly want to do. Read more>>

Miha Sarani

As a child I spent a lot of my time drawing. This made me very content and even helped me make sense of the world that surrounded me. I had zero interest in sports, or playing with the other kids in the neighborhood. And once I bought a small cassette player, and you couldn’t get me to leave my drawing desk. Read more>>

Melissa Ayala

I wish I had started my band when I was younger so I would’ve had my time on my hands to build relationships and connections within the music scene and achieved more. Read more>>

Brandon Lei

I started my journey as a photographer halfway through my sophomore year in college. Seeing more creatives on social media during this time trend towards leaving their 9-5 jobs to pursue their dreams always intrigued me to ask: “what would life look like if I chose to leave everything behind in pursuit of a free-spirited lifestyle traveling the world?” Read more>>

BGIRL MAMA

I wish I had started my creative career as a singer sooner. But I need to stop wishing and start doing it. Since I was young, I wanted to be a singer AND dancer on stage. For the past 20 years, I’ve been doing mostly dance performances. I am WAY more comfortable dancing than singing my songs. Karaoke is a breeze, but sharing my songs with the world is quite vulnerable. Read more>>

Camille Sevigny

While I have been a DJ for the past 20 years, I always wanted to produce music. Back when I felt like I might be able to begin producing music I felt that it was cost prohibitive. The computers used to make music were almost exclusively Macs and the top software was only available on Mac computers as well. Read more>>

Claude Xavier

I wish that I had started my creative career sooner. Fear and doubt is the biggest immobilizer to any dream. I looked at where I wanted to be in the field of entertainment, specifically voice acting and cosplaying. We see the people who we want to be, but forget they were the people we are now. The difference is, oftentimes, they used their difficulties to push them while others allowed it to hinder them. Read more>>

PiPEllA

This is a complicated question. I started my artist career in earnest about 2 years ago. As a 23-year-old getting my Masters at a well-known music school, I was told multiple times that I was too old to make it if I wasn’t already signed by a label. No one ever said it to me about me, but they would talk about the music industry as a whole and how younger is better in the eyes of the “professionals”. Read more>>