Show your face
Here is a video of a kid who looks to be about 12 playing Pachelbel’s Canon in a way that amazes me. It has amazed a lot of other people too. More than 1.2 million people have viewed his video since it was uploaded two days ago.
There is a lesson to be learned from this kids success. In the entire video you can’t see the kids face. You have no idea who he is. You know that he is amazing, you can hear it, you can see him working his magic but how can we give him credit? In his 5 minutes of fame he has probably lost more then he has gained all because he never figured 1.2 million people would want to see him play guitar.
This is what happens when we sell ourselves short. We keep our heads down and work hard and assume people will notice. This isn’t the way the world works. To some extent we know this, but the alternative is harder. Sometimes we don’t prepare for success because we never really believe it will happen. If this kid really believed he would be an amazing success he would have created a home page with a mailing list and eventually a CD. The home page would have been clearly listed at the beginning and ending of the video and he would have more then 10K fans subscribed to it right now.
So let this be a lesson. If you are skilled and talented, show your face, keep your head up and assume success will come knocking. Don’t be the faceless kid in the video.