Few things are more confusing and confounding than success. Especially in music where "success" is defined individually yet also collectively in the form of capitalist measures (i.e., sales, followers, etc).
My latest acquaintance who's recently reaped some small financial rewards attributed his windfall to "persistence" and "just stayin in the game" and never once investigated his own data to find out what he should repeat. He ended up writing /releasing another single that sounded kinda like the one that was already selling - it didn't. Why? Nobody knows.
Success can be terrifying if you don't know why because you also don't know what to repeat. How can you change/refine if you don't know what's working? Instead you just have this static fear that it will disappear without warning - AND IT WILL if you don't know what you're doing.
Few areas are as full of mysticism as the professional arts - sans politics maybe - and I'll never understand WHY so many artists are content to remain ignorant of their own formulas.
Without exception the folks I see who are continuously successful are not only driven, they are disciplined, gentle, willing to change, and they trust their advisors. They are part of a TEAM and woe to those who fail to recognize the contributions of others to their own successes.
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN 'INDEPENDENT' ARTIST!
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