From my perspective, most journeys (including careers) start on paths that are fairly wide. This can be a good thing because there are so many fresh things to discover and learn along the way.
Being open to a wide field of options and opportunities allows a composer to start gathering more and more personal experiences that will help them along their unique path. That wide path can include an openness to exploring a variety of projects, learning opportunities, creative approaches, relationships, collaborations and deals.
Heading down too narrow of a path too early can potentially and unknowingly bypass encounters with experiences that could have possibly been of tremendous value to the composer. As time passes and careers evolve, a composer typically narrows that path. This is often a narrowing informed by personal experiences. Clarity of focus is increasingly based on what they have learned and achieved along the way.
There is a delicate balance of how wide of a path to take and how and when to narrow it. Too wide can lack direction. Too narrow can put on blinders that tune out potentially valuable opportunities.
My general observation is that most composers tend go down too narrow of a path too early. Frequently they allow their restlessness dominate by trying to have things fit a certain set of expectations. And as a result they bypass too much of great value to them along the way.
My advice to most composers: Be open to a fairly wide path of learning opportunities, creative approaches, relationships, collaborations and deals. Good experiences, bad experiences and those in-between will become YOUR experiences.
Travel gathering a great amount of YOUR experiences. When you do, more will come your way.
