Timid About Tech? Don't Sell Yourself Short
4 years ago, I bought a laptop and set up with my basic equipment to start doing voiceovers. The laptop served me well, but in the past year I have been growing increasingly aggravated because after I turn it on, it takes several minutes to load, and several more minutes for my recording software to open. When you add up all these precious minutes, it's a waste of time and, if you're using a pay-to-play site or trying to get an audition submitted that is time-sensitive, all of those minutes really count.
I finally got a new laptop!
I decided that one of my birthday gifts to myself would be a new laptop. I ordered one from Amazon but it was a bust: the laptop worked great except for one thing- it would not charge! No matter which outlet I plugged it into, the battery continue to decrease.
So I ordered a new cord from the manufacturer directly. It still didn't work. Oye!
Finally, I got a new laptop that works. And this past weekend, I set up all new studio equipment with it for the first time since I moved in my house a few years ago: a new shotgun microphone, pop shield and interface, and making them play nicely with my DAWs.
Now I don't recommend changing so many pieces of studio equipment all at once. I had a great year in my business and while my equipment was working just fine, I figured with these goals I've got, it was time to upgrade and take my sound to the next level!
But AND however, some thoughts crossed my mind:
What if something doesn't work?
What if I can't figure out how to do this?
How the hell does a brand new laptop NOT HOLD A CHARGE?
Well its pretty simple: I decided that the desire for me to improve my sound, and thus hopefully book more work AND land a new national agent (my business goals) OUTWEIGHED my FEAR that I wouldn't be able to learn how to set up and use all this stuff.
Desire for Success + Focused Effort > Fear of Failure
To me, DAW software has a bigger learning curve than setting up hardware (even an intimidating looking interface), but it can still be done.
You just have to decide whether your worries are fears are bigger than your desire to PROGRESS and SUCCEED.