As I wrote in my previous post about the Creation of the Life you want, once you have created your Vision and moved towards it with your action plan, it’s important to let go about the way your Vision is going to be shaped. The truth is: we don’t know how it’s going to work!
The act of Creation is an act of stepping in the big unknown and playing with what the universe is giving us, moment by moment, instead of reacting and thinking of what it “should be”. There is no “should” my friend, the situation is as it is and we could decide, if we want to be creators or rather co-creators, to play with it and make the best out of it. Pretty much like when you’re a tennis player, there is some wind, you play on a surface you don’t like, and yet, there is still a way to do your best until the match is finished!
Enter Glen Rose
On my trip to Mongolia, my connection flight was delayed and I ended up staying one day in Seoul, trusting that there was a good reason for it…till I met Glen Rose and had a delicious lunch with him.
After we talked and enjoyed sharing about our experiences and similar point of views, I’ve realized that his life is a perfect example of how to create what we want. So here it is.
It all starts with passion
Glen told me that at 36 years old he embarked on a journey using his gifts to play piano in hotels all around the world, and especially in Europe, when at that time American artists were very much appreciated. Traveling, changing hotel every month, living like a prince and meeting new interesting people (my sense is that there were many women among them:)), playing with and for an audience around his piano, this was the life he fully enjoyed.
Many years later and having less energy, Glen decided to teach. However, once he realized he still wanted to travel around the world, and not being sure about being able to get a good internet connection to interact on Skype with his students, he realized that this was not ideal.
Which lead him to write a first book. Not as successful as it could be, his business partner and some young students asked him why he didn’t place his book online?..
…an advice he purely ignored! He then wrote another book about guitar, get the same feedback, and in addition to that he was advised to use his ukulele to teach jazz, because first that’s what he loves to do, and second, because this is something very few people do (many musicians, he told me, don’t consider ukulele as real music, which is perfect, because it naturally has created his niche: jazzy ukulele).
He then found the right partners to help him, in US and in Cambodia where he lives from time to time, designed a website, a few ebooks, and started to communicate about it using his Youtube channel.
Immediate and continuous success! Students love it, and he receives emails from all over the world to thank him, which still surprises him: “I’ve just been myself!”
The rest is as inspiring. Every month he receives passive incomes from his online work, so he doesn’t really need to work anymore, and he can continue to explore further his passions, for work and for himself. Soon his jazzypiano.com is going to be launched online. Once you get a recipe for success, keep going!
Thank you Glen for your inspiration, for living your truth, playing with the unknown, making mistakes and recognizing signs when they came to you. As you told me, it hasn’t been this way all the time. You have tried many businesses and many didn’t work. Basically you learned to fail and stand up again (which means this was a success in the end).
And you, what do you think about Glen’s story? Can you relate to some of his mistakes and/ or achievements? Share your thoughts in the commenting section below.