Proverbs for the Songwriter

I was reading back over my notes from the March 2006 IndieHeaven CIA summit in Nashville. Below are some insights which I found worth noting. I've been trying to apply these principles to my life and to my music.

1. If you don't believe in yourself, no one else will.
2. Life isn't a promise, it's a chance.
3. Pay someone who knows what they're doing to run your merchandise table. If that person isn't selling stuff (even if that person is your friend), fire him/her.
4. Protect your profit margins.
5. Be a good business person and take your time.
6. Record your performances (evaluate yourself/even sell the recordings).
7. You're not a failure unless you quit.
8. Every time you play, play like you're playing for a sold out stadium.
9. If you don't care about what you're doing, no one else will.
10. Write from your heart, get all the voices out of your heart.
11. Expect God's annointing whether you're playing for 3 people or 3000.
12. Some people have lots of fame or fortune, but what are you complaining about; you have Jesus.
13. Labels can be good, they are not all bad.
14. Don't be jaded.
15. Don't complain, just write better songs.
16. Read. Have a love affair with books.
17. Have good critics.
18. You need one blind fan.
19. "For the truly creative mind in any field is no more than this - a human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create - to create - to create - so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of beauty and meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create. He must pour out creation. By some strange unknown pressing inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
-- Pearl S. Buck
20. What you say between songs is just as important as the words in the songs.
21. Don't waste words. You have approximately 200 words to make your point (in a song).
22. Use images whenever possible. Cut out everything possible which doesn't paint a word picture.
23. Think of yourself as an entreprenuer.
24. Songs are not downloadable (they take a lot of work to create).
25. No one likes song writing (it always has moments of struggle, like giving birth).
26. Your life is worth writing about. Pay attention to your life.
27. I'd rather dig ditches than write songs with no meaning.
28. Songs can be true, but are they honest?
29. Make good music, not successful music.
30. I'll aspire to gratitude in all situations.