Have you reached that moment in your life (in your work) when your inspiration meets your expertise? It’s that moment when you are competent enough at what you do, that you are required to muster the courage to make the most of an opportunity. One of our best young songwriters, Kara DioGuardi, spoke about seizing her opportunity. The assistant to the president of one of the industry’s largest recording companies called her to set up a meeting in New York. At the meeting, the executive told her he had heard a song she had written for a competing label that he liked, and now he wanted her to know that he was looking for a song for one of his multiplatinum stars.
DioGuardi left the meeting and went straight to her hotel to start writing. The next morning, she had written a song she liked, but it was only in her head. Her musician collaborators were all in Los Angeles, and she had no time to fly back and work with them. She hesitated only a moment before she called the record executive’s office and told his assistant that the song was ready. There was a moment of shocked silence, and then she was told to come in right away. She booted up her computer in front of the president, took a deep breath, began slapping the side of her thigh for a simulated drumbeat and sang the song in its entirety.
That song became a major hit, and the record company president has become one of her best clients. DioGuardi had the courage to step up to her defining moment. She said that no matter how uncomfortable it made her, she had learned that seizing opportunities is one of the most important things we can do in this life.
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