Being an Artist – Living as Art with Sezgin Inceel

In this episode my guest is Sezgin Inceel, musician, music teacher and academic.

Why should you listen to this episode

Sezgin tells the story of how he changed his career direction to music, at a relatively late age, what inspired him to do so, how he find a balance for himself to create art and live without much concern for money. He shares his multiple interests and how he manages to pursue them all and against what cost.

This episode is a must listen for you if you felt a calling in you for something and did not pursue yet, if you have multiple emotions that pull you in all the different directions, if you like art and want to do art.

The Key messages I took away

Like the story of Peter and Elena, someone lighted the fire in Sezgin’s heart and told him he could become a musician. From then on he was determined to do anything to get to music business, if it was not going to be a full musician career, he would write music, produce music, sell music – he would do something, anything about music. He did not have to try the alternatives because with his hard work and passion he became the musician and later the academic he wanted to be.

Anyone of us can be this person for someone. Instead of raising our eyebrows, telling them not to dream, we can choose to believe in them and support them.

I loved how Sezgin said “I do things I enjoy without giving much thought about if I can do them”. What a freedom this should be! The freedom to create, the freedom to play with things. The freedom to let our inner child play. He shared that having a “job” as music teacher takes off the pressure to be liked and to sell his art. He created a mix for himself where he pursues being an independent artist, a teacher and an academic at the same time. We don’t need to have one thing. We can create our own mix.

To my question “How would you like to change the world, what kind of impact you want to make?” he gave an interesting answer which challenged my assumptions. He said it was not his job to think what kind of impact he would make. He could only hope to share a real, authentic work that reflects his emotions so maybe it touches someone and create connections. He could not know what impact he would make. He said his only control is about the realness of his work. That was beautiful. How real is our work? How real are we when we work?

He left me with the ideas of being human and impermanence. We all are a bit different but at the same time very similar. Whatever we experience might change very soon. So we can never say that is the way things are and things should be. We can only ride the waves and be present with what is.

Beautiful.

Episode Notes

04:56 Sezgin introduces himself

08:00 What Sezgin does with his different feelings and emotions

11:52 How what Sezgin earns his life intersects with what he loves doing

15:26 The process of changing his career direction

22:46 How he got into the music school

32:15 How he pushes his own boundaries

34:45 Challenges of having multiple projects at the same time and how Sezgin manages them

36:45 Sezgin’s new projects

44:07 Sezgin’s answer to my question “How do you want your work to contribute to life?”

I would love to hear from you!