The Daily Challenge of Pursuing a Career in Music

In college, Ted Yoder was told to quit chasing his dream of a music career. But he pursued his passion and now has a video with over 100 million views.

Video Transcript

Ted enrolled in college to become a music teacher. But that wasn’t his passion.

Ted Yoder: My first semester in college, my music professor told me I should quit because I was just buying into the lie that everybody says you can’t make a living off of music.

Now, Ted makes his living off of music.

Ted: My wife spent wedding money, wedding gift money to get me a hammered dulcimer, so that’s how it started.

”To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.” —St. Justin Martyr, Fragments, Fragment 18

Ted: You should be always progressing on your instrument. Part of the drive for me is just that constantly thing of knowing that I can get better. I’m playing totally different now than I did eight years ago, and eight years from now, I better play a lot better than I do now.