If you've got a talent, protect it.
Expect problems and eat them for breakfast.
Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.
You never know what motivates you.
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.
If you think you can do it, you can.
Things do not happen. Things are made to happen.
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
Well done is better than well said.
What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.
I spent many years trying to write a lot like Ben Folds or John Lennon or Rivers Cuomo. I think that's healthy when you're learning to write and seeing how chords fit together and how songs take shape.