A real genius/great philosopher (no not Val Kilmer in Real Genius) once said “[When you find something that you really want to do in life] you do that; and forget the money…. because it’s better to have a short life that is full with the things you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”
I was going to put the following video as a link in the above paragraph… but this one needs to be embedded here. The guys name speaking is Alan Watts and he rocks!
How would you answer that question?
As inspirational that I find that, I’ll be honest. I don’t really know how great Alan Watts really was as, aside from skimming his wiki page, this is the only thing I have heard from him.
I saw that video a few years ago, and upon looking it up again I found a lot of other great and seemingly relevant topics to click on (which I will do at some point), but before busting out the word “great” I just had to vet my source. What surprised me was that I found out that he died at the age of 58 in 1973. I had to pause as that lecture sounds so relevant to today. I got no sense of it being dated and I really think that is one of the not-so-obvious things that makes it as impactful as it is.
Well my personal answer to that question is an easy one… hands down, it is to help inspire people (kids in particular) to do great things (specifically through music). See, I don’t really care how it happens or who I am able to inspire, but if I could inspire kids somehow through music I’d be happier than ever… for the purpose of this post I won’t go into details, but I will say that it defines me as a person, how I act, who I want to be, and in general the virtues I hold myself to.
See, for the last 6 years I’ve been doing my best to get my t-shirt company (Audio Cotton) to a point where I didn’t have to focus so much on the operational things, but was more able to work on using it as a platform to help more people get exposed and inspired through local musicians… before that, I did whatever I could to learn, build a resume, and just completely immerse myself in whatever I could do to hopefully inspire or help inspire. To help bands “make it bigger” and hopefully inspire people. Inspire people to want to do all sorts of awesome things… just to put people in good moods, take people’s minds off of things, and all the other awesome things music can do.
My first stop? The Connecticut School of Broadcasting…yep I am totally a CSB grad. Well let’s just say after a few years, a local (cable access) “radio show”, and an internship at the Late-Great WFNX, I realized I wasn’t the best fit for being an on-air talent. Sure I might not have had the “best” radio voice, but I still would have trained that thing harder thaaaannnnn A Wagon Fulla Pancakes training for the Champeenship! My lack of fit was more than that, it was that my distractive nature wasn’t the best fit when one needed to be as sharp as a nail, and in a “split-second of a split-second” make things happen exactly when they need to. Aside from all of that, my time at FNX taught me that commercial radio isn’t where bands “break”.
So with that path taken, I then took a step back went to school for Music Business, during which I interned/volunteered/worked at lots of places, NEMO and the BMA’s, I managed a venue at school, hell I even got to be the PR Director of the largest student music association in the world!
All I knew, is that I wanted a resume before I graduated…. and when I graduated; a resume I had. But there was one thing holding me back… at each of these above places, I would work hard, do the best as I could, but my lack of self confidence was telling me, “Dude, you are kinda sucking right now. Do you really think they’re actually going to pay you for this?
Flashback to one of my first jobs. It was a retail job selling shoes, and when I got there I was clueless, I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off instead of actually providing any real help to the customers, I didn’t feel like I fit in, and I almost quit just as many times as I thought I was going to get fired… and then it happened….
A pit in my stomach formed… one almost as bad as the time in the 6th grade that I got rejected by a Elizabeth when she found out that I had a crush on her…I’m talking “got hit with a bowling ball out of nowhere kind of thing” here….
…the store manager Keith told me to come into his office as soon as I was done with my customer…
I was so nervous, I must have been sweating worse than the time I was a big shot… hell my palms were sweating, and my palm’s Don’t sweat! I close the door, and it is quiet for what seems like an eternity. Just me and him and and an upside down piece of paper on his desk. I just wanted this to be painless, rip the Band Ai… ::cough:: I mean “adhesive bandage” off, as fast as you can, tell me about the rabbits George, just lay it on me damn it! And just when I didn’t think I could stand the pressure any longer… he says something like, “I need to give you this”, takes the paper and hands me….
To be continued….
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Thanks for reading guys! If money were no object what would you do? To find out what happens to our “hero” stay tuned to, “Grab That Cash, and And Make a Stash!”
And if you haven’t voted on “Get a Haricut“….” Do it! Seriously, do it…vote on that puppy we’ll blow it away” haha
Talk soon everyone!
-Kevin