You will likely never experience the luxury of having your own manager. And so you must become your own manager.

Much of your success will come down to how well you can manage yourself, your mental health and your emotions. Creatives are deeply emotional beings. It's this ability to feel––and to feel deeply––that allows them to create music, paintings, plays, books, poems and so on.

However, this more heightened emotional side of themselves also predisposes them to be erratic, irrational and fiery. While these are tremendous qualities as a creative, they're terrible qualities if you're a manager. Good managers are calm, collected, reasonable and level-headed.

If you want to create a successful creative career for yourself, you must not only work at being a great creative but a great manager. Elvis Presley had Tom Parker. Metallica had Cliff Burnstein. Led Zeppelin had Peter Grant. U2 had Paul McGuinness. Elton John had John Reid. Celine Dion had Rene Angelil. The Beatles had Brian Epstein. You have you.