“I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one.”
Virgil Thomson
Here is the entire quote by Virgil Thomson: “I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.”
In my lifetime, I have never been able to prove this wrong. I have met musicians that definitely had regrets, but never one that regretted being a musician.
As a musician, I recognized early that this is the one passion that will continue to grow with me as I experience life. I believed this so much that when I was in college and at the crossroads of what I was going to study, I chose music. Music was a pillar for me and the only consistent thing I had that I could claim all to myself. Music would not falter, music would not leave me, music would never talk back to me, and my music would continue to grow over time. This at least was my logic at the time. It wouldn’t be until later that I would really understand what my choice really meant.
“Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music.”
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Such a beautiful quote from our Russian Comrade Sergei Rachmaninoff, and so true in any culture. There are literally hundreds of quotes about music I could comment on but this one really rings true to me for a number of reasons. First and foremost, a lifetime of listening 24/7 would no be enough to listen to all the music that has been created in this world, even music that was created within a single lifetime.
So here is my recommendation. There is always time to listen to one more band, one more composer, one more singer, one more lyricist that can invoke an emotion of love, hate, fear, sorrow, pleasure, or pain. But, there is never enough to listen to all of them. So, my advice is to beg, borrow, or buy whatever music you can from your friends, family, and iTunes and listen, listen, listen. You will most assuredly find music you love and music you don’t. Which reminds me of yet another quote:
“When I don’t like a piece of music, I make a point of listening to it more closely”
Florent Schmitt
“The truth is more important than the facts.”
Frank Lloyd Wright
It may not be a very well know quote by Frank Lloyd Wright, but it is one that has had a profound impact on me in my project management career. You see, facts can simply be symptoms of a larger problem. Capture all the facts you can and you can theorize on a resolution all you want. You may think you know the answer but it may not always be so.
Take the following scenario for instance. I’m paraphrasing on a story I read years ago, but it get’s the point across I’m trying to make.
A plant manager notices a janitor mopping water from the same spot on the floor every day for about a week. One afternoon, the manager asks the janitor where the water is coming from. The janitor points overhead at a pipe that is leaking.
The plant manager assigns a welder to mend the leaking pipe. The weld immediately resolved the problem. However, about a week later the leak persisted. The problem was not solved based solely on the fact that the pipe was leaking.
“Please, dear God, don’t let me fuck up.”
Alan Shepard
A quote that we all may have said to ourselves more than once but never spoke it. I find this citation compelling for several reasons. First, why it was said; second, when it was said; third, who said it. I will start from there.
Late in the 50’s, NASA recruited over 100 test pilots for the manned space program. After several months of grueling training, seven members were chosen for the original Mercury space program. Alan B. Shepard Jr. was one of these men and responsible for this unforgettable quote. The original quote he said to himself was “Don’t Fuck Up, Shepard…”. It was modified for the movie “The Right Stuff” and later became known to aviators as Shepard’s Prayer.
Shepard cited these words shortly before taking off in America’s first manned space flight while strapped into a Redstone rocket full of ethyl alcohol and liquid oxygen (basically a giant bomb). I can only imagine what he must have felt like before takeoff. This short flight will take him to an altitude of 116 miles and he would have to endure 11.5 g-forces on re-entry. This is enough to kill most men if sustained for more than a few seconds. Unlike Sputnik which was totally automated, Shepard actually had flight controls to adjust pitch and yaw during takeoff as well as re-entry.
