On the intro page is the admission that this is the most ambitious, riskiest thing I’ve ever done for my career. Thinking about it though, I realized that from my first job at age 8 on through the ones listed on the resume, I’ve been the initiator. But… those jobs existed before I took them on and I was already familiar with the other people involved.
TA, though, doesn't have any specific job listings, Rosearium is probably running just fine, and speaking a few sentences with James at the NYC 4444 dinner doesn’t even count as being acquainted, much less being familiar.
Approaching a stranger to say, “Hey there. Great work so far. There are some areas where it could be improved. How about letting me take care of that for ya.” is far more likely to fail than to succeed.
You never know until you try.
This summer is marked in my life-plan as the return to paying employment… as? If I asked for advice, probably 3 of 5 people would say “Follow your passion” But until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know what that was.
Actually, in the past, I felt I was lacking. Ironically, I was blaming the answer for me not finding an answer. Always asking questions, trying new things, looking for that passion of mine.
It remained elusive and I decided to accept that I just may never have a BIG passion. A concept which probably feels as unfamiliar to a musician as it does to my child who has also dedicated tens of thousands of hours to art.
I also enjoy making art, however, rather than honing skills to a professional level, I prefer experimenting with the tools and playing around with the materials to learn about their how/why/where. In the past I scolded myself, seeing that activity as fearful procrastination holding me back from finding my big passion. Eventually feeling like I didn’t deserve to do art.
Happily, there’s no more of that negative self-talk about the “supposed to’s” because I’ve since realized that I actually did find my passion and had been following it - being curious.
If considering curiosity as an activity, it's not strange that going on Rosearium in late February this year led to wondering how the posting patterns broke down and what that might mean for the past and the future. Knowing ahead of time that only surface statistics were available was no deterrent. Naturally, for an outsider some answers will always be out of reach, but even so, the search is still enjoyable.
Coincidentally, at that time I had also begun to consider if I would return to familiar work territory or do something different. Perhaps unavoidably, these two topics intertwined in my curiosity fueled thought process and that is how we arrived here.
But not directly. Before this, there was research. A lot. This is a big leap and I was not about to try while simply being presumptuous. My hypothesis needed to be fairly solid. There’s now a document with about 14000 words of research, analysis, and drafts, plus a spreadsheet file. You can catch a glimpse of the 7 pages of data collection and analysis of all the posts on the Rosearium news page since 2023/03/22 on the Method page.
Detailed record keeping like this has been part of every job I’ve had since age 19. The courage to suggest myself as part of your team comes from the drive to do such projects - having not just the ability to complete the tasks, but also having a sense of satisfaction while working on them.
Whether the deeper look into Rosearium's numbers indicated I should move forward or let go or if you are looking to fill this role or not, the time spent can be counted as “hobby time.” I’m good with that.
Though, of course I’d prefer reaching the goal.
Taking part in Rosearium, in a field as dynamic and wide as the music industry, means working with the numbers and patterns of membership management while being in the ever changing environment of others’ creativity.
It’s an opportunity to put my combination of analytical thinking and curiosity to good use for something I'm already interested in and enjoy. Doing this work on this topic would certainly qualify as following my passion.
As for how far I can go on this specific path, the next step is yours.
Looking forward to hearing back from you, sincerely,
Sarah Bonnoitt
