50 Cent on his recent Final Lap Tour:

I was gonna do four dates internationally, and Live Nation didn’t want to do the four days because they were like, “It’s gonna be COVID, you’re not going to get through the dates,” or whatever. 

I ended up financing the dates. I paid for the arenas, and sold them out myself.

When they see me sell it out myself, it changed their thought process a little bit. When I got back, I did 16 shows—we sold them out afterwards.

You may not be able to finance your own show at an arena, but you don’t need to yet; do what you can. As your project gains momentum, people will be more energized to work with you. Sometimes, the right partners will find you. 

See de-risking, starting small, spaghetti at the wall, and using cheap tools.