Are You Here To Be In Show Business? 59have me. All these things conspire to create the exact career of musical
service to humanity that I had imagined, but never would have known
how to build if I hadn’t done it one day at a time. I took that huge leap in
1997, moved to Los Angeles and just started! Starting is very important.
Right where I was I just started, and I certainly could not have planned
most of what’s come.
If you could give advice to those who are still searching for their
purpose in life, what would it be?
Well, there’s the simple answer I always shared with kids, which is do
for a job what makes you giggle. Do the thing that is so fun that you can’t
even imagine people would pay you for it. Because somewhere, somebody
is making a good living doing that thing.
I used to think that was the whole answer, but it’s really not. For
a lot of people, that thing that they “came to do” really isn’t all that clear
and could in fact be completely hidden. People who aren’t clear gravitate
towards me, because I am so clear about who I am and what I do now.
They come up and share with me that they are touched by that clarity
and inspired by it. I think the advice I would give to a person who just
doesn’t know how to answer the questions, “What am I here to do?”and
“Who am I?” is that we all fear making a mistake that we can’t take
back. I think that fear keeps people from quitting the job, leaving the
relationship, moving to the city, recording an album, writing the book.
We view these things as one-way tickets, as no-going-back choices. The
fact is that there is no one way (and this is a song from my new album),
there is no foolproof plan, there is no fateful final chance. And I really
do believe that.
Face the fear of not knowing, face all of those uncertainties, and
particularly face the fear that you’re going to make a fatal mistake, that
this is your one big shot. If you don’t know what it is you dream of doing,
try something! If you can’t decide whether to be a hardware manager or
a trumpet player, rent a trumpet for a month and see if you gravitate
towards playing it. See if you have a knack for it, or go work in a hardware
store, and if you don’t like it after six days, quit. It sounds a little
freewheeling and perhaps a little idealistic if you have significant financial
responsibilities or “ties that bind you.” But, it is possible to experiment
and find out, and I’m a big believer in the path of least resistance.
If you step forward and try it – whether it’s a mystery or something
you would love, love, love to do – if you just step forward and try it, you