Chicken Soup For The Artist's Soul

[Anthony Emmolo]

Hello friends,

Some of us will go through some very difficult years as we pursue our careers as artists. There may be moments that feels as if we can not succeed. I know that I have just gotten out of a two year period of career struggle. During that time, I read many stories of people who just didn't quit. They achieved a high level of success, simply because they knew they could, and then they did everything they possibly could to not give up on themselves. If any of you are going through a period like this right now, I hope some of the more inspirational success stories could help give strength when all seems impossible.

Maybe some of you would like to add some inspirational stories here to help others. Here is one that has gotten me through some hard times. It is the story of the Olympian Ruben Gonzales. It talks about the tool of looking objectively at oneself, and being honest about our strengths and weaknesses. Then using the strengths:

At the age of 20 Ruben realized that he wanted to be an Olympic athlete. However, he wasn't young, (for that world) and he had to be honest with himself. He wasn't a great athlete, but a good one. What was his Ace in the hole? It was his ability to never give up. That is what would get him in the Olympics. His next job then was to choose a sport. He looked for the most grueling sport in the Olympics, knowing that he'd have to rely on the probability of his teammates quitting in order to get into the Olympics. After studying, he realized the sport for him would be the luge.

After locating the US Olympic training headquarters, I believe it was in Lake Placid but I'm not sure, he was told he was too old. One way or another the voice on the other side of the phone found out that Ruben was born in Argentina. Due to the nature of the sport, there weren't enough athletes from enough countries to keep the sport safely on the Olympic schedule. So, the training camp told Ruben that if he'd train for Argentina, they train him. This would give the sport another representative country, and help to save the sport. He was warned that most athletes begin training for the luge at 10 years of age, that 9 out of 10 people quit before training is over, and that he could expect broken bones. That was all he wanted to hear. He knew he had found his sport.

At the end of training, 9 out of 10 of his teammates had indeed quit. He may have received his share of broken bones, I don't know that part f the story, but he did make it to the Olympics in Calgary 1988, Albertville 1992, Salt Lake City 2002 and he's currently training for the 2006 Olympics and he'll be 43 years old when he gets in.

Let us not believe the thoughts that say we cannot have the career in the arts that we want.
Anthony

Please add to the thread. I think it could be valuable. Some of you may even have some inspirational stories from your own lives.