*Cheesy topic alert!*
Similar to "top tips" topic, but that's about current advice. I'm more interested in your own reflection. If you could make a phone call to your few years younger self, what would you tel him/her? What advices would you give? Let's reflect a bit, so new guys can learn from our own flaws.

Mine would be:

Find likeminded people.
...as soon as you can. I mean truly likeminded. They are hard to find. You can have hundred friends. ...supportive ones even. But usually they don't see inside your damn brain when it comes to music. You need people that do. And when you find them, keep them close as much as you can. Chances are they'll bacome your frineds anyway.

Go local.
Learn that damn decks and get yourself out there. Not your damn SC account, yourself. Otherwise a point comes when you get affraid to do it.

Take chances.
Failure is a good thing. It will happen a lot. You really do need to learn from it, but don't be scared of it. Chances you won't fail are actually really thin, but you'll never find if you run away from it.

Forget your past.
Focus on who you want to become. On a lot of levels, including your music taste. It all shows in your music, trust me.

Don't listen to every advice.
Getting obsessed by a detail is much easier when you have tons of contradicting advice hanging over it. Throw it away and filter only stuff you feel applies to your kind of music.

Share.
When you are happy about something, get it out. When you can't crack something, get it out too. It's easier not to, but it leads to "nobody would care" doubt ... which is a killer.

I'm still battling with few of these, but it might have been easier if I realized them much sooner.
Yours?

hmm.. probably sound design and creating melodies

thats what makes the track

Don't give up your sanity as a human being for music.

I think I've mentioned this in another post of mine. Before I was a producer, I was pretty deadset on becoming a serious guitar player. I was basically a jerk to anyone or anything that prevented me from reaching my goals and would do everything I could to ensure that all my free time went to studying music.

This was a stupid decision cause I missed out on a lot of "stupid high school stuff" because of it and now I'm stuck with all this knowledge with nothing to really show for it.

So yeah. It's not necessary to turn yourself into a savant to get better at this or anything for that matter.

Don't give up your sanity as a human being for music.

I think I've mentioned this in another post of mine. Before I was a producer, I was pretty deadset on becoming a serious guitar player. I was basically a jerk to anyone or anything that prevented me from reaching my goals and would do everything I could to ensure that all my free time went to studying music.

This was a stupid decision cause I missed out on a lot of "stupid high school stuff" because of it and now I'm stuck with all this knowledge with nothing to really show for it.

So yeah. It's not necessary to turn yourself into a savant to get better at this or anything for that matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC5XKpthBc8

but then you wouldn't be able to be the master of the universe if you aren't looking to be so dank...

I would've spent more time with people and less time obsessing over my music. I went as far as going to online school in order to make more time for my music, but the isolation burnt me out where it really mattered. We find inspiration, happiness, and creativity when we invest time in people who want to invest their time in us. Now I'm too cynical, and that's something I have to break free from because I know that then I'll start moving in the right direction.

^ That's such a good point about working smart. Lots of people seem to obsess about the number of tracks you have to produce, about how many hours you have to work before you hit a certain level of expertise. But those hours of work are not progress if you don't keep actively learning new things.

I would've spent more time with people and less time obsessing over my music. I went as far as going to online school in order to make more time for my music, but the isolation burnt me out where it really mattered. We find inspiration, happiness, and creativity when we invest time in people who want to invest their time in us. Now I'm too cynical, and that's something I have to break free from because I know that then I'll start moving in the right direction.

I know what you mean.  I did the same thing the first 3-4 years that I started producing.  My mentality was that I had ALL this catching up to do and I didnt care about the sacrifices I made such as a social life or taking a couple years off college to focus on music.  Honestly I do not wish I had done anything differently because I believe that type of thinking holds you back.  I would not be as experienced as I am now if I didn't do what I did, and I don't regret it. 

Building your social life back up takes a little bit of time but having a small circle is better anyways.

I wish I didn't get caught up on the third party plugins bandwagon and just really learned how to use Logic's built in plugins.