KISSIN' at the DRIVE-IN

 
 
"Start where you are. Distant fields always look greener, 
but opportunity lies right where you are."

~ Robert Collier

     Sometimes the circumstances look all wrong. 

        Things aren't perfect. 

        Should we go ahead anyway? 

        How do we decide?
       
        In a distant book months ago I used the example of Troy Shondell ... he had been a hero of mine in the early 1960s when Shondell was a teen idol singer. 
     
      Influenced by the late Buddy Holly, Elvis, Little Richard and many more of the early rockers, Troy Shondell began his singing career while still in high school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. One of his first local recordings was "Kissin' at the Drive-In" on Mercury Records. That record became a big regional hit that gained him hope for future national attention. (Please don't say you don't remember "Kissin at the Drive-In"!)
      
      Troy's fame soon spread to the Chicago area where he and his band became the first rock band to ever appear at the then famous Brass Rail blues and jazz club in downtown Chicago. Troy and his band had fans standing in line to watch rock 'n' roll for the first time in downtown Chicago. But the momentum didn't hold, and Troy bounced from small label to small label without much luck. 
      
       Then, in October of 1960, Troy's father died of a heart attack. With his father's death, Troy's mother inherited a small business that was her only income. In order to keep it going she asked Troy to come home and help her. His dream of hit music would have to wait. So Troy quit the band and gave up music so he could help with the immediate crisis. 
      
        In February 1961 his mother encouraged Troy to audition for an extra part in a movie being filmed locally after seeing an ad in the local paper. At the audition a man familiar with Troy's music said he would finance a recording session if Troy would consider trying it again. Troy was overjoyed, especially since he had been hanging on to a special song just in case an opportunity like this came along. It was a song that a local disc jockey in Fort Wayne had called to Troy's attention. The song was called "This Time (We're Really Breaking Up)".
       
       There was a tremendous blizzard the day of the recording session on April 1, 1961 in Batavia, Illinois, and only three musicians were able to make it to the session---a guitar player, a sax player, and a drummer. Should they even do this session? Where would the bass sound come from? 
     
       It didn't seem like the best time to try for a big comeback recording.  
     
       But maybe timing wasn't everything. 

       Maybe desire and passion meant more than timing.
     
       The session was a go. Troy played piano, vibes and worked hard to get a bass-type sound out of his guitar. He completely threw himself into a heartbreakingly great vocal performance of "This Time." They were exhausted at the end of the session, but they'd made the record. And now it was time to play it for the world.
     
     But every record company in Chicago turned it down. 
     
     So Troy decided to start his own label. At least that way he would have an actual vinyl disk to play. And one day while visiting WJJD in Chicago, Troy tried to get air play for the record he knew represented his future, even if it meant he had to beg. Luckily that night the DJ was a former supporter of Troy's and he took pity on the desperate singer. He got permission from the station to play "This Time" but only once and it had to be on his "Rate the Record" show, airing late in the evening. It was a gamble for Troy, because the records that lost the phone-in contest were never to be played again. Troy's record---the one recorded in the blizzard with only three musicians---won the contest!  Troy's sparse and haunting "This Time" had stunned listeners with its beauty, pain and passion. Now in rotation at that station, the record began to sell. In fact, 10,000 copies were sold the very first week! "This Time" topped the charts for an unprecedented 16 weeks during the summer of '61. 
       
       Although other successes would follow for Troy, none of the others might ever have happened without "This Time." "This Time" went on to sell over three million copies that first year!  
    
        Many people would have used that blizzard in Illinois in April of 1961 as a reason to postpone the session. The timing wasn't right. They didn't even have a bass player! How are you going to get your bass sound? With a guitar? Bad timing if there ever was bad timing.
      
         But Troy Shondell put enough passion into that stormy night to electrify a whole nation of teenage record buyers. Even today, the record sounds great and the sparse and funky production values only heighten its impact. It feels raw and real. You can download the record today and crank it up. And don't miss the message as you listen. 
    
         Circumstance is nothing…passion is everything.
     
          Every once in a while I put a little slogan up in my office that says "Doing it now is more important than doing it right." I don't mean don't do it as well as you can, I just mean if you wait until the timing is perfect, it'll never happen. Someday is code for never. Just do it now. This time. 

*   *   *   *   *   *
 
Me and Stephen McGhee

      Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose. That's why my special guest at my coaching school webinar this month is Stephen McGhee, a master coach with a lot to say ... and someone who lives everything he teaches.

      People are joining my school in droves now that I have LOWERED THE ENTRY FEE to $900 ... no longer do coaches have to figure out where they are going to get three thousand dollars to join us .....

    McGhee and I will deliver an interview/webinar that all the coaches in the school will want to play over and over ... because in the past he has talked a great deal about his skills as a transformative coach, a mountain climber an author and all those kinds of worldly success topics ... but this time he's going to reveal his innermost deep secrets about getting clients, charging high fees, and being a millionaire coach whose clients re-enlist with over and over again ... go to www.coachingprosperityschool.com to get in on this immediately ... 

     McGhee wrote this: "One year when I was running up Imogene pass, I thought I was going to vomit because I was so sick from fatigue, the altitude, steep incline, and my lack of sleep, etc. My body hurt so bad and my feet were bleeding from the blisters forming in my wet socks. I wanted to quit. Who would know? I could slide into the forest and everyone would think I was just going to visit “mother nature”. God it hurts, I thought! Why me? Not now!

        "Magically, I glanced over to an older gentleman with a grey beard and shoulder length hair. He was lean. His eyes glimmered with purpose and Gods Light. He could see my pain. He could see that I was hurting so badly that I was about ready to cry. My eyes were swollen with tears and pain. He gently put his hand on my right shoulder. His touch was strong and loving. I looked into his beaming smile. He said “Just take the next step my friend”…and “then the next one”…”you will get there”. That was all he ever said. That was it. There was no other verbal communication.

         "I heard him and I felt his wisdom to my core. My mind shifted. It happened so fast, I almost heard it click. I took the next step and suddenly I was picking up the pace again. I could feel him running near me. I could feel two spirits unite in the purpose of stepping forward. I was relieved. I was feeling strong. I felt so strong that eventually my angel friend and I caught up with the pace of our group. That was a cool feeling! Finally and gracefully we reached the summit."

        "So now. In what area of your life and business do you need to keep stepping? Where do you feel fatigued? What project, relationship, and situation are you currently dealing with that requires the next step? Most of us are thinking about the problems or the Herculean effort to finish. If you feel stuck…don’t worry about the finish line. Just take the next step." 

Comments

[Ayush]

Hi, Rick,Thanks for the kind words about our library. I hope I can live up to the exttipaecons set by my colleagues!There are a couple answers to your question. First, the very practical answer you should consider as a student, which is to see if Mike has defined exttipaecons for you to ensure you are meeting his requirements.The other answer is probably the more useful, real-world answer. That is in citing sources, your goal as a writer is to enable your reader to easily get back to the information you cite. You do this to back up your points and to help your reader go out and use your sources to learn more. Some pieces of writing are very formal and some are informal, which may depend on audience and location of the piece of writing. Thus, if you are writing a paper for publication or a major thesis (as examples), these are going to be very formal. If you are making a blog post, this might be more informal. Also, the work that you are citing may help you decide what to cite. Quotes from a one-page newspaper article may not really require page numbers since a reader can quickly scan the article. However, it might be a courtesy to your reader to include the page numbers for a quote from a 600 page book so that the reader doesn’t have to skim the entire book to find your quote. In a majority of the pieces of writing we do in our lives, we do not need formal citations, but I would also say that a majority of the time we need to include most of the info that is found in a formal citation: author, year, and source. In all citations, there is a degree of judgment and a degree of audience awareness.Now, for this class and for other classes, you will need to cite sources and use MLA at some point. You may or may not need to cite them in your online posts for this class. However, it isn’t a bad idea to practice and get good at using MLA.Hope this helps, Troy

[True Religion Jeans]

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork was one of those books that came out of nowhere. It was never on my radar - heck, I had never heard of it before, but after seeing it featured on the #fridayreads (a Twitter meme we you tweet what you are reading each Friday) blog... it got on my list and didn't take too long thereafter to get onto my Kindle.

[Dan]

WOW, wonderful stories. Both of them. One of the quotes I got from you Mr. Chandler is "Anything in life worth doing is worth doing poorly". It has become the most motivating quote in recent years for me. It's practically became my motto. It was such an inspiration for me when I first heard it from your recording! I felt like such a failure, no good for anything and I was in such a pain. I wanted to stop. Things haven't changed that much, but this quote helped me to take another step, to keep on going. Thank you.

[tom]

What a great true story. I just moved to Ft. Wayne from Chicago.....Troy Shondell in reverse I guess. I retired from my profession of 30 years an will be starting anew. This story has inspired me to keep on truckin'....one more step, then one more....Thank you again Steve Chandler!

(and Troy Shondell)