Last night, I was working late and watching the most recent episode of House, M.D. on Hulu Plus. There is a scene where an Amy Grant song plays and one of the doctors goes, “Amy Grant? Really?”. That response mirrored the response of some music critics when she burst onto the music scene decades ago, turning out hit after hit that the general public loved. I remember her music as an integral part of my childhood, at home, in the car on the radio …
When I was in first or second grade back at the beginning of the 1990’s, I remember an interview that my father recounted to me where some people were discussing Amy Grant’s success. One guest, clearly exasperated, said, “But her songs are so simple, the girl next door could have written them!” to which the other guest responded, “Yes, but the girl next door isn’t writing them.”
That was one of the first big “Aha!” moments I had in life. It doesn’t matter how many good ideas you have, how much raw talent you were given, or how much potential you display. The only thing that counts is your output; what you actually produce and provide to the world. Unless a good idea is translated into reality, it has no value. It can’t make your life, and the life of your family, any better. It can’t enrich anyone. It is effectively dead.
If “Family Guy” had remained a concept in Seth McFarland’s head, the odds are, he wouldn’t be rich and successful today. If Amy Grant hadn’t written her songs, she wouldn’t be able to live off the royalties from hits played on the airwave more than 25 years ago. It’s “La molesse est douce, et sa suite est cruelle” all over again but it accounts for so much of what I see when it comes to those who have what they want and those who don’t.
Doing something doesn’t guarantee success but doing nothing does guarantee failure. You have to put down the coffee cup, get dressed, and transform the dream you have for your life into a physical reality. It can be done. Millions of people do it every day. But no one will do it for you. It’s a hard, difficult, frustrating process at times, but aren’t the rewards of having everything you always wanted worth it?
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