Musician, Edem, has urged young and upcoming individuals in the creative arts industry to be resilient in their quest to succeed in their respective careers.

He urged them not to take ‘no’ as a rejection or affront but rather a test of their resilience.

“You must be resilient and must not take the ‘no’ that people say to you ‘personal’. You need to continue pushing,” he stated.

He was speaking at the COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience Programme (CoRe), which is an initiative of the Springboard Road Show Foundation, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation and Solidaridad. The programme is aimed at supporting over 692,000 young people in the country.

He was speaking on the theme ‘mood swings; the arts, COVID-19 and you.

“When people say no to us we think we are not special but people might just be saying no because it is human nature and if you continue to push you will see the door open,” he stated.

Personal experience

Sharing his personal experience, he said the first time he got into contact with Hammer, who turned out to be his first producer, he called and was met with rejection but he never gave up and kept calling.

“I found out where his studio was and went all the way from Sakumono to Awudome where his studio was and that is how it happened,” he noted.

Narrating another incidence which tested his resilience, he said “I was trying to collaborate with Pat Thomas on a song and it took me three months to get him. I will go and he is busy and one time I drove to his house, I parked outside quietly and called him if we could record and he told me he was home so if I could pick him up so I immediately told him I was at his gate and that is how the collaboration happened.

“It took me three months to get him but it was worth it because I learnt a lot from him so sometimes you also need patience,” he said.

Making money from music

Touching on how he was making money from music, he said in modern times artistes were making money from digital stores but noted that this money although could support an artiste, could not sustain him.

He said artistes who were making enough money were those who had taken time to build their brands.

“When you build the brand then there can be other facets of you that bodies, companies and entities need to go into business with. You need to build a brand that people can use to market their products,” he pointed out.

Greatest lesson

Commenting on what his greatest lesson had been as an artiste, he said “my greatest lesson will be staying true to yourself and having the ability to not be a fame junkie.”

“When the spotlight is on you and they are taking it off you, you will do anything to remain in it but the ability to take that power and control yourself even if the spotlight is not on you is something I have learnt which is helping me,” he explained.

Counselling session

Sharing some of the opportunities that the CoRe programme offers, the host, Mrs Comfort Ocran, said the programme as part of its roll out had a support system for everybody within the ages of 18 to 35.

“We have partnered with the Ghana Psychological Association and we have counsellors on standby who are ready to offer counselling service to the youth.

She said this could be assessed by logging unto the CoRe website www.core.com.gh.

“There are about 50 psychologists in different areas who are ready to offer free counselling in different languages.

“We have counselling sessions three times every week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and this is between 6 to 7pm on telegram,” she noted.

Nurturing talents

A Clinical Psychologist, Dr Joana Larry-Afutu, who also spoke on the programme urged the youth to always take their God-given talents serious and nurture them to benefit themselves and others.

She said it was always necessary for young people to deal with their realities by finding out what they are good at and putting in time to nurture it.

“You need to realise your talent and nurture it for your own good and for others. People often urge their children to go into academia full time but it’s not always all about academia, you need to make time to develop your passion as well and pursue it,” she stated.

“If you know what is in your hand early and you nurture it, it doesn’t only benefit you but other people as well. Aside that if you know what is in your hand and do it, you are doing it as a career and also fulfilling some joy in you because you are doing what you love doing and being paid for it.

“We need to be guided to identify what we have in our hands early and nurture it. The academics is good but we need to nurture our talents alongside it,” she advised.