So basically there is a famous essay called “The Hedgehog and the Fox” and the story goes that while the fox knows many things, the hedgehog knows one big thing. The fox tries every possible angle to catch the hedgehog, but every single time, the hedgehog comes out alive because it simply rolls up into a “perfect little ball” becoming a “sphere of sharp spikes, pointing outward in all directions.” So, the fox can never get to the hedgehog. Yup! Even though the fox is way more cunning than the hedgehog, the hedgehog always wins!

So why do I speak of this now in Blog #24 as I am on this journey of finding a place for me as a full time, abundantly paid songwriter, musician and performer in this world? Because until I stopped myself dead in my tracks and said, “What can I be the best at?”, I had been trying to focus on every area of music and life, on my own, rather than truly be honest with what I can be the best at! On this journey I believe I can be the best at writing and constructing songs. The hedgehog knew one thing and stuck to it and therefore always won! With us humans, well, it takes a little more time to really get what it is we can be the best at, and then, it takes courage to put all the other things we’ve wanted to “be” and “do” behind us. But here’s the thing… once we do find out, after our own trial and errors, what it is that we can be the best at, then we will be on to something GREAT!

And once this occurs, then we have somewhere to walk towards. We can then reach out to other like minded individuals who have also found out what it is that they can be the best at, and together, we will be able to compliment each other’s skill. Look around and see what companies have become great. There are so many other aspects to it, but one of the most important aspects is that they found what they could be the best at and then went with it, taking all the best of the best people with them!

With all this said, I have been working for the past two years now towards finding out if “songwriting” is what I can be the best at, which seems to me that I am on the right path. I’d like to end this blog with a short story I shared in October’s Newsletter. It seems to be appropriate for this blog. Here it is below:

“A Vision Coming To Life” 

I just finished a project working with a woman who’s second language is English. She hired me to write her lyrics for a new song she wanted to create, but she couldn’t find the words to express herself. The process was quite enjoyable, yet filled with some challenges along the way.

As a songwriter, I want to give each person I work with a chance to tell their story as I sit down with them, usually for about an hour. Once I feel confident that I have enough of their story to create something solid, I walk away and begin my processs. I gave myself a two week window. I am finding that the most important factor for writing a great song is the space I give myself in between each session that I sit down to, to fill that, at first, empty paper. Yes, it gets filled, more and more, with every session. The hardest part is creating a template or scaffold for the song. Once I get that squared away, I can work through the other challenges than come to surface and at some point a solid structure to the song comes to life, one that has clear ideas, imagery and catchy phrases, which then, appear in a very personal yet universal way, one that can ring true to the singer, as well as to all the people that will hear it.

Anyway, I handed in the completed lyrics to her last week and she hugged me so hard I couldn’t breathe. She was so touched by my ability to say what she wanted to say but just couldn’t. I am finding a real joy in giving other people a chance to live their vision, even if they don’t have all the chops they need YET, to do it! I’ll keep you posted on how the full song turns out.

Ok, see ya back here soon…. Until then, we are but another step closer to finding Pinocchio a home!