So, about 6 months ago, I spent far too much money on a machine, MK3 Trum machine, and sampler. After years dreaming of making music, and you know what it's done since? Nothing. It's collected dust. But do you know what hasn't collected dust? My imagination. Many times, I've seen myself on stage, lights going crazy, crowd cheering, tunes flying, but my God, that couldn't be further from reality. And for a long, long time, I've been trying to figure out what's been going on, why I'm just avoiding something I clearly want to do. Which is when I remember hearing a story about an architect. Now, this architect was extremely talented. He had designed many remarkable projects throughout his career, but his dream was always to design and build his forever home. And finally, later on in his career, after years thinking about it, he decided to start. Now, as you can imagine, he took this project rather seriously. For him, everything he'd done before had been preparing him for this, so it was going to take time, but the weeks started to

turn into months, and the months started to turn into years. And people around him, his friends, his family, his colleagues, fascinated by the project, started to become concerned. He spent more time on this project than his previous 10 projects combined, yet had nothing to show for him. He was so determined to give his lifelong dream justice that nothing was ever good enough. And then he felt ill. Now, this gave him a real sense of urgency to get it done, but sadly, he passed away before he could. His forever home was just a collection of designs he never quite finished. Now, that got me. What a tragedy. And when I heard it, I remembered a cheesy Instagram motivational quote thing I'd had saved, the ones that always have the silhouette of a person looking at a sunset. I mean, look, most of them are complete nonsense, but every once in a while, they hit hard, and this one did exactly that. The graveyard is the richest place on Earth because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled.

books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, and the inventions that were never shared. I mean, if that doesn't put you in an existential crisis, I don't know what will. But anyway, it certainly made me realize something: dreaming is easy. Anyone can dream; we're in control, nothing's at stake, we can't fail. The hard thing is actually doing something about it. Now, I'm a big UFC fan, and shockingly, a big Conor McGregor fan. He once said something that always stuck with me but only recently started to make sense. Basically, he was the first UFC fighter to win two belts simultaneously at two different weight classes. And after he won the second one, the moment he gets both belts on his shoulder, he looks up at the big screen, and the first thing he says is, That looks good. This is what I dreamed into reality. Now, obviously, when you're not a two-time UFC world champion, that's just beating the [__] out of someone. It's a little bit cheesy, but my God, what a line. And it and it

made me realize something. The people I look up to, the successful ones, are the ones that just had the courage to try and turn their dreams into reality. Look, it isn't easy. You've got to leave the comfort and safety of your imagination, but it's better than the alternative. And even if it doesn't work out, I'd much rather be someone that tried and failed than someone that never tried at all. So yeah, expect some J Alto beats coming soon. All right, see you tomorrow.

Stop dreaming, start doing

Stop dreaming, start doing