Everything Depends On You

It’s up to you to make it happen.

Lately a close friend and I have been privileged to spend time working on a project with two incredible gentleman. I struggle for the superlatives adequate enough to put in to words just how much these men have achieved and quite honestly I could not be more grateful to have the privilege to simply be in the same room as them.

Given the vast wealth of life and business experience between them both it would be remiss of me not to share and spread their experience and wisdom further,

I hope I can firstly do them justice in recounting their words but also that it is of much of a help to you as it has been to me.

For the purposes of this article I want to focus solely on one piece of advice from one of the gentleman in particular…

He fought in and survived World War II, has a doctorate and at 92 is still lecturing and working tirelessly on so many different projects and opportunities. One of which very luckily is our video series.

I could write for days about what we have learned so far from just scratching the surface of his life experience, however I want to focus on one particularly anecdote he told and the key lesson from it.

(I most definitely am not recounting his story in a way that will do it justice or with full accuracy so the below is paraphrased in order to communicate the main message).

When he lived in America he was a keen musician and had an opportunity to meet a world renowned clarinetist in an orchestra, to get some lessons from him.

After their initial pleasantries and greetings the clarinetist told him…

“I know how to play the clarinet. It doesn’t matter to me at all if you do or don’t know how to play”.

The lesson he takes away from that experience is that everything depends on you.

If you want something to happen you are the sole person responsible in order to make sure you achieve it.

It’s a mindset I’ve been trying to apply to my own life in the weeks since I first heard his story. It would be massively audacious here of me to present some analysis of why and how it has helped me, but I know with absolutely certainty it has.

So I wish to talk no further on the topic but simply leave you with the words of a man who knows far more about life than myself…

So remember everything depends on you.

And it’s up to you to make it happen.

I wish you every success.

Jack

About Me

I help people, brands and business communicate more effectively with their customers through visual, audio and written content.

I do this through Southpaw Sport, the sports content marketing company I’m currently building as well as on a freelance basis working for agencies and production companies.

You can contact me at jack@jacktompkins.co

Or visit my website www.jacktompkins.co

You can follow Sixty Second Film School on YouTube where we share news, reviews and tutorials for digital filmmakers, all in sixty seconds…

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