A sweet story to inspire us all:
Ignacy Paderewski, the world-famous composer-pianist, was scheduled to perform at a large symphony hall in America. In the audience that evening was a mother hoping that the concert would inspire her nine-year old son to practice the piano. But the boy was bored and fidgety—he’d come against his wishes.
As the mother chatted with friends, her son slipped away from his seat, drawn to the gleaming ebony Steinway piano and its leather-stuffed stool on the huge stage. While the sophisticated audience hummed and buzzed, the boy sat down on the stool and eyed the black-and-white keys. His fingers trembling, he began to play “Chopsticks.”
All the concertgoers in the audience stopped speaking and turned in his direction. Amazed and agitated, they began to call out, “Get that boy away from there.” “Somebody stop him.”
Backstage, the master overheard the angry sounds out front and quickly realized what was happening. He grabbed his coat and rushed toward the stage. He stepped over to the piano behind the boy, reached his arms around both sides of him and began improvising a countermelody to harmonize with the boy’s playing. As the two played together alone on the stage, Paderewski whispered in the boy’s ear, “Keep going. Don’t quit. Keep on playing….Don’t stop….Don’t quit.”
A wonderful story, isn’t it? It reminds us so well that there will always be naysayers who have something to tell us about what we’re doing. But at the same time, there will always be those big-hearted boosters who’ll whisper in our ear to keep going.
“Don’t quit, can’t fail”—that’s one of the mantras of Dr. Rob Gilbert’s Success Hotline.* “Don’t quit, can’t fail”—words to remember and take to heart as we all write on!
* Check out Dr. Gilbert’s daily advice on “The Success Hotline Podcast.”
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