Unless you were born into a social circle of Hollywood big wigs, success and recognition won’t happen overnight. Persist, persist, persist. Don’t allow yourself to get discouraged, and don’t give up.
Do not be afraid to work and do not whine when you've got too much work to do. Do not forget that there are many available job positions for, say, graphic designers / 2D artists / programmers, but there is usually only one for the composer. So if you have any kind of work as a composer – stick to it, always try giving 110% out of you and it will be paid off sooner or later!
Full uncensored interview with The Hollywood Reporter composer roundtable guests. Danny Elfman, Alexandre Desplat, Fernando Velasquez, Mychael Danna, Marco Beltrami and Patrick Doyle.
The biggest thing for me is making sure I’m doing what I love to do. If you love it, you already have the motivation to; study it, practise it, and become better at it. But more importantly, you’ll find great satisfaction and enjoyment!
Everybody knows about that typical overused phrases like “work harder than everybody else” or “improve your craft and work on your skills” and so on. So I'll skip that! But I believe there is another important aspect to success. Collaborations with other people should be fun. Make yourself into a person who is fun to work with and you'll be fine!