Ah fear! Been my nemesis for decades ;~(( Even though I started playing at a very young age, and fell in love with music, I never wanted a career in music, in large part due to fears. But it was not the fear of "nobody gonna like it". My fears were as follows:
1. Fear of not living up to my own expectations. Music is my religion and I would often quote in my head, a line from Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" where in the song "The Lamia" Rael laments "Only a magic that a name would stain". I feared that my contribution to the music world would, IMO, be a "stain" on my religion. I just never felt early in my life that my contributions could add anything of value to the magic of music. I no longer feel this way.
2. Fear of becoming really good, yet not being able to make a living at it (listen to Harry Chapin's "Mr. Tanner" for a story chronicling such fear). So many great musicians end up abandoning their music and/or survive as starving artists because our culture (and the control of the music industry) creates incredible barriers that stifle many artists. I was stifled from even attempting to become what I could be by the structure of that industry and in part our capitalist culture. It is all about my fears and decisions in the end, but these elements (remember the Payola scams of the 70's) created said fears that pushed me towards those decisions.
3. Fear of death. I started smoking cigarettes in 1st grade at the age of 7. I quit shortly after my 9th birthday because I was huffing and puffing trying to tie my ice skates, and realized that it was probably the fault of the tobacco clogging my lungs. Knowing that very early on in my life, and seeing so many artists die of overdose and other un-natural causes of death, I was certain that if I did go into music, and had any kind of success I would undoubtedly die very young. Even as a broke buffoon in my 20's, I still almost killed myself many times over with drugs, alcohol, sheer stupidity, etc.
4. Fear of output being influenced by success. When you start getting paid big dollars, and the ones writing the checks say "yes, another album just like that", it is going to be hard for anyone, however devoted to their principles, to say no to producing what they tell you will give you another 7 figure bounce to your account. I ONLY want to produce what I want to produce and NEVER want to produce music simply because it will make money. If it does not move me to produce it, I do not want to be influenced by money to make it. Having written over 2,000 songs at this point, and having made nearly nothing from such efforts, I think I am on track to die without having to worry about this one!!!
We all love acceptance and adoration, but when it comes to music, I refuse to compromise and will therefore remain an artist true to only myself. If anyone does like it, that is sprinkles for me as I have already had my cake and eaten it over and over. 90% of what I have recorded and released I LOVE listening to as much as I love listening to any other artists music. I also had the "success" of having 6 different tracks from my first album (released in 2015) get played on more than a dozen college and independent radio stations I sent it to (and that is just the stations that report, most do not). Based on that, I realized that some of what I am doing is recognized by others as having value, and that made me feel good but did not prevent me from going in a completely different musical direction 12 months later ;~))
If you made it this far in my ramblings, congrats! I will close this by saying, whatever you do, be true to yourself. Don't let fears control what you are doing or why you are doing it. I succumbed to such fears early on in life and the older I get, the less relevant those fears are. Chime on Brothers and Sisters and make that music that is a primal urge inside of you!
