Legendary late night talk show host and comedian John William “Johnny” Carson received six Emmy Awards, the Governor’s Award and a prestigious Peabody Award. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and received a Kennedy Center Honor. Johnny Carson continued to be an entertainment icon well into his retirement.
Carnac the Magnificent was a recurring comedic role played by Johnny Carson and it became one of his most well-known characters. The “mystic from the East” would “divine” unknown answers to questions posed by announcer and sidekick Ed McMahon. Somewhere in one of Carnac the Magnificent’s unopened envelopes is the answer to true reinvention happiness in Johnny’s own words:
“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that…you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”
Howard Schultz knows a lot about building brands. Former owner of the Seattle Supersonics and Chairman & CEO of Starbucks , Forbes ranked Schultz as the 354th richest person in the United States, with a net worth of $1.5 billion. He renamed Il Giornale with the Starbucks name and aggressively expanded its reach across the United States growing the company rapidly and retaining ownership of every domestic outlet. Schultz wrote the books Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time and Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul.
What defines rock music as an ideology is “authenticity.” It’s the same yardstick we need to use to measure how real we have been to our self, our life and our career. Just as the litmus test of rock & roll music has always been whether the artist is true to his creativity or has sold out to commercialism, reinvention is our opportunity to find, free and follow our passion or to concede to what significant others throughout our lives have told us would be best for us.
I had the incredible opportunity in the ’70s as Engineer and Head of Recording Studio Operations for London Records, Inc. to be in charge of the final sound that analogically made it to listeners’ ears on such hit singles as “LaGrange” (1973) and “Tush” (1975) and such iconic albums as “First Album ” (1971), “Rio Grande Mud” (1972), “Tres Hombres” (1973), “Fandango” (1975) and “Tejas” (1976) and to work with a band that articulated rock culture’s defining paradox: authenticity vs commercialism: ZZ Top.
The blues-powered “Little Ol’ Band from Texas” has a lot to teach us about staying true to who you are as a person and living your passion without compromise. “Waitin’ for the Bus” wearing a pair of “Cheap Sunglasses” is living the dream as long as you’re doing what you love!
American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist Christopher D’Olier Reeve is best known for his motion picture portrayal of the comic book superhero Superman. He has also appeared in other critically acclaimed films such as Street Smart and The Remains of the Day and Chris received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in the television remake of Rear Window.
Six time Grammy Award-winning American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer Billy Joel is the sixth best-selling recording artist and the third best-selling solo artist in the United States. And, he’s #1 with a bullet on the entrepreneurial charts when it comes to the simple wisdom of doing what you want in life:
How often have I heard the well-intentioned advice, “Live in the moment.” Even Henry David Thoreau suggested, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” Yet, in spite of how long we’ve been encouraged to be ‘in the moment,’ that’s precisely where the greatest risk to our ability to reinvent ourselves lies. Staying in a zone of immovable “mindfulness” is precisely why so many people yearning for more in life continue to merely live in an ongoing state of complacency and habit without ever daring to step out of their comfort zone and explore future possibilities.
Michelangelo would never be driven by the source of his greatest accomplishments: “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and in action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.” He would simply leave the granite block sitting in the middle of his studio.
Twentieth century literary giant Franz Kafka produced such iconic works as The Metamorphosis, The Trial, and The Castle. Trained as a lawyer, he worked after law school graduation at an insurance company, dedicating his spare time to writing; reminding me of Patrick J. McGinnis’ book,