Well FRiend, as someone whose family business has been dealing with "artists" of one form or another for many years I have to ask you exactly what are YOUR metrics for determining whether or not a particular performer is good enough to be a commercial success.
The sad truth is most creative, performance, and artistic types are the world's WORST when it comes to hearing "you're just not good enough."
Oh sure, many of those folks may have absolutely brilliant skills with one aspect or another of their craft. And naturally enough that is the thing they will focus on. UNfortunately, they simply refuse to hear about the one or two things about their practice they do badly that their actual talent simply can not overcome.
You can be a brilliant technical musician, and if you can be satisfied with a career as a studio musician you'll probably do fairly well, but that's probably ALL you can be without a hefty load of other talents that are not immediately apparent.
And sure, you might be another Rush Limbaugh who has made fools of many a radio guy that told him he would never "make it," but how many of him do you think there are?
I don't think you get my point. You're talking about how to get invited to shoot hoops at the neighborhood bully's house, and I'm talking about putting up our own goal at our own house. What it takes to be a "commercial success" is a red herring...because I'm not talking about trying to get signed to Geffen, or Columbia, or RCA. I'm talking about building our own record labels, our own movie studios, our own social media networks, our own entertainment media.
As Glenn Beck once said, "we surround them". We in the Center-Right are the majority in this country...at least for the time being. If we offer the entertainment consumers of America appealing movies, music and video games that reinforce and glorify those things we hold dear -- God, country and family -- I believe they'll flock to it, spend their money buying those movie tickets, and buying those CDs and downloads. And at the same time, we'll de facto defunding the Geffens and Disney-Pixars.
Even more importantly, we'll be deprogramming, un-indoctrinating, or whatever you want to call it, the young people who were never taught American exceptionalism, and the virtues of hard work, personal responsibility, the love of family and God...and we'll deliver our message in such a way they'll never even know it, because they're having too much fun.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!