Life is a game of inches
« return to blogI recently watched an old Pacino movie “Any Given Sunday”. Somewhere in the body of the film, there’s a motivational speech about how the game (in this case football) is won an inch at a time. It really stuck with me. After thinking more about it and relating it to my own experiences, I broke down life’s problem solving situations to 3 approaches:
Door #1: We come up against an obstacle and by hanging with it, work our way past it
Door #2: We come against an obstacle and admit defeat
Door #3: We step away from the obstacle and tackle it again at a later date
As a young man I definitely gave up too easily. I lacked the confidence and history of success to dig a little deeper and get through life’s obstacles. Door #3 was my standard operating procedure. I would take a run at it, fail, reboot and try again.
When I started my marketing business in 1988, I was seriously underfinanced and naive about business ownership. Still, my standard operating procedure switched to Door #1. Why? I had an added incentive to succeed. Nothing like some serious debt and 2 kids in diapers to keep you focused. Most of us have been in similar situations but that’s not the real point of this story, just a prelude to it.
Over the last few years, I’ve come back to something I had left undone. As a result, I’ve learned that success and confidence is somewhat transferable and with patience, the game of “progress by inches” pays off. In my twenties, I had eked out a living as a musician. I lived hand to mouth and had no success to speak of other than surviving… which was a degree of success in itself. I had a strong desire but at age 30, I accepted Door #2 – defeat.
A few years ago I got back at it. I was pretty rusty but I continued to play, learned some new songs and started writing again. I sat in at a weekly jam for a year, then got my own house gig for a year, then recorded an album and now I’ve just released a second album. Even better, I’m getting airplay and great industry reviews. This last inch I travelled is a million miles away from the first inch I moved forward a few years ago. I can tell you I experienced the same uncertainty I had as a kid but this time I pushed on regardless.
So that finally brings me to the point of the story. It’s not rocket science or overly profound but it is true. You need to move the first inch to see where the second inch can take you… and so on! My game of inches had these 6 essential ingredients:
1/ Keep believing – Desire and self-belief are a powerful combination
2/ You’re not alone – Find a supportive environment where others are on a similar journey
3/ Others believing – If you’re not around people that believe in you, you’re around the wrong people
4/ Reaching higher – Surround yourself with people better than you at your chosen vocation and you will rise to a new benchmark of proficiency
5/ Each day is a new day – Past failures don’t keep success from happening- quite the opposite
6/ Earn your way – Don’t ride someone else’s train, pay your dues, earn your stripes, work hard and when you can, make Door #1 your best friend…it’s a more expeditious journey
I started Palmer Marketing at age 34 in January of 1988. I had 2 kids in diapers and a crazy idea about running my own company. I came from an entrepreneurial family and had no good reason to believe it wasn’t possible and as it happens, it was.
I’m definitely a country girl. I didn’t grow up in an actual town, village or hamlet. It was more like the middle of somewhere along Highway 28, surrounded by trees. Many thanks goes to my high school art teacher, Mr. Edwards, for inspiring me to choose this career path. With the realization that I actually could create art for a living, college lured me away from country life to the big city. Kitchener, to be exact, to study Graphic Design & Advertising at Conestoga College. Talk about beginning an adventure and a culture shock! Not staring at people with purple, green or some other wildly coloured hair was a bit of a challenge. City buses (lol thinking back), who knew they only stopped on the same side of the street as the bus stop sign!? Lesson learnt.
I love my work like I love summer. Why not? Summer is when I get to play my favorite sport—golf! Playing artist is a lot like playing golf. You need to be calm and cool under pressure if you ever hope to keep the ball in play; that’s rare for an artist. My best shots happen when I talk less and concentrate more; that’s not so rare for an artist.
I am the 8th of 9 children raised in Essex County outside of Windsor, Ontario. We lived on a gravel road, no sidewalks and our greatest adventures were in our own backyard. I still have friends I made in grade 1 and continue to stay in touch today. After graduating from the University of Windsor with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, I moved to the big city of Toronto and have worked most of my career in the printing industry. I got to know the folks at Palmer Marketing as a key supplier to them for over a decade.
To say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree would be an understatement in my family; at least when it comes to picking a career path. There isn’t a person in my immediate family that hasn’t at some point or another worked in the IT field. I guess there’s something in our DNA that pulls us towards computers.
