Over To You: How Do You Deal With DJ Jealousy?

Reader Quicknight writes: “Yesterday, I was at the venue where I’d played my second-ever DJ gig. I was there as a guest, not as a DJ. The DJ who was playing at the party was unbelievable! I don’t know if he simply played mashups by others, or he played a pre-recorded set (I was too busy getting angry) or maybe he actually WAS mixing live, but he was better than anyone I’d seen.

“I mean, his music sounded perfect, he dropped one acapella after another on all unknown music and every song he played was different, yet you danced because you knew the lyrics. Everybody I’d failed to impress in my gig was dancing like crazy when he played. I swear if it wasn’t for the awesome food, I’d have run out of there and gone home crying. I guess I’ll have to practice some more first…”

Digital DJ Tips says:

It’s OK to an extent to feel like that because it shows you’re passionate, but really, what do you expect at your second gig? You are still a young Jedi. Your job is to stay humble and open-minded, enjoy the journey, and learn, not get angry.

Actually, over on the forum post where this was originally posted, was a wise reply from another member, Guy Hagen. Guy wrote:

“Dude, all the practice in the world won’t help to get rid of jealousy. People who are overly jealous if they aren’t as good as someone else are the same type of people who become overly cocky as soon as they DO become better than someone else. So jealousy isn’t what you need to deal with – it’s yourself.

“The more experiences you have and the more you succeed and fail, the more perspective you’ll gain, and you’ll (hopefully) just grow out of it. It takes way more energy to be jealous of someone’s success than to be happy for them.”

Couldn’t day fairer myself.

Have you ever felt jealous towards another DJ? How did you deal with the feelings? What did you learn from it? Would you have any advice to add? Please do so in the comments!