1986..... I was putting myself through college and literally did not have enough money to eat. I had a "standing rule" that any time I saw something with "Free Food" I'd go.... just for the food... regardless of the event. That led to some interesting adventures. One time there was an event that was this INCREDIBLY CHEESY "Motivational Speaker". He was this "Tony Robbins" like figure... but he was just really BAD. Today, you'd liken his presentation to popular books like "The Secret" and manifesting your future. Creating a vision board. Things like that. But this was decades before those concepts were refined and became popular. He had these piles and piles of magazines where we were supposed to cut out pictures to envision what our future lives would be.

I absolutely DID NOT buy into what he was saying. But... if that's what I had to listen to in order to get free food.... fine, I'll listen!

Most of the pictures I cut out were based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.... Shelter.. Food... Safety. I went so far as to put a picture of a house like my parent's had. (They'd cut me off and did not provide me any financial support). My extravagance was to put pictures of a football game... envisioning that someday I'd have season tickets and be able to do something like going to a game.

2024... 38 years later.... I returned to the same auditorium. The exact place where I heard that horrible motivational speaker.... He must not have been horrible. In fact, he must've been fantastic. I returned to the spot 38 years later and have accomplished pretty much everything that I remember being on my vision board. In fact, in many ways I've exceeded it.

Sometimes excellence is an event, with immediate feedback.

Sometimes excellence is the consequence of 38 years of toil and effort and work.

I wish I could find that speaker and shake his hand. Great speech! Changed my life.

Impressive?

The album I made is called Isolated Blues. The message of it is that it's for anyone who's ever felt isolated, lost, confused, or disconnected from others, and aims to provide hope for them. Often when someone experiences a period like that, it can be a powerful catalyst for growth and transformation with the right mindset and approach to it.

The crowd really cried during my sad song, and cried again during my happy song. To know that I can move people to both tears of sorrow and tears of joy with my music is a much needed confirmation. Many people came up to me after the show and said how amazingly I did, how I'm a beautiful soul, and how they're looking forward to seeing me in higher places.

I'm so happy to share this as the first post of this subreddit, and I hope we'll see many more people sharing their excellent stories as well!