It’s a good idea to hire a good painter to paint your living room.
A good painter is better and faster than you.
A good painter knows what to do when problems arise.
A good painter knows how to keep things clean.
A good painter has spent a long time becoming a good painter.
But
…even the good painters can’t make the paint dry faster.
We can only control the controllables.
We can only improve the improvables.
»» Thanks to Eric for this one.
Is different than asking, ‘Would you choose to listen to this?’
You can get some wind in the sails by asking some trusted people the first question.
But you’re gonna need a decent number of strangers to answer Yes to the second question in order to make a career out of it.
And not just any hit…one of the biggest, maybe THE biggest hit in the last twenty five years…
The Killers playing Mr. Brightside in 2002 before they got signed and made Hot Fuss.
The small crowd gives a polite round of applause at the end but no one is going crazy…the crowd doesn’t hear an international smash…even though the version on the video isn’t all that different from the version with billions of streams.
It’s a fully formed mega hit that hadn’t been discovered yet.
Could you have heard the hit?
Or maybe another way to say it…Will I be glad I stuck around through the ramp up?
We know that the first notes of the song aren’t the best ones but if it’s an artist we like, we trust it’ll be worth the wait until the chorus.
The video clip, the article, the podcast, even the trip to the grocery store.
It’s all about the source. Who are your trusted sources and who are you a trusted source for?
Here we go…first Monday of the month, new Hum Love playlist on Spotify and Apple
There’s a Beatles lyric book I’ve given to a few friends over the years…it’s got handwritten copies of most of the songs and some storytelling and dialogue to go with them. It’s amazing. Well worth the $16.
If you’re a songwriter and you scan the pages for more than a few minutes, I hope you’ll pick up on one interesting observation…
You have written at least one line that is better than at least one line in the Beatles book.
And if you can write one that is better, you can write more.
»» Thanks to Seth for connecting the dots on this one.
What does it take to realize you’re good at something?
We hope we’re good…but when the crowd doesn’t cheer loud enough we begin to wonder.
We think we’re good…but then we get envious of the person doing a similar thing.
We start to believe we’re good…but we don’t get the right pats on the back from the right people.
We look for something we’re good at…but if we might be good at it, then it must be something everyone is good at, so it’s not worth very much.
So what’s it going to take?
If you’re contributing in a way that makes the air a little lighter for someone else…take note.
If someone gives you a sincere thanks for doing something that was easy for you…take note.
If you have similar conversations with a wide range of people…take note.
But the biggest thing is learning to embrace that the thing you’re good at is enough. The thing you’re good at is valuable and needed by your family and community. Don’t belittle what you’re good at. Own it and use it to your benefit and the benefit of the world around you.