“Time is on my side.” – Mick Jagger
In November, 2009, after several years of Party on the Moon building a name in the industry it helped create, the call we’d been waiting for finally came. Donald Trump wanted us to play his legendary New Year’s Eve bash at his famous Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida. The guest list included Rod Stewart, Woody Allen, Regis Philbin, sports stars and the who’s who of the political and financial worlds.
This was our chance to take the band to the next level. We had been working hard rehearsing and performing for several years. Now we had the chance to showcase ourselves for our most prestigious audience yet. But were we ready? Had we invested enough time in ourselves to master our act?
In his book, The Tipping Point, author Malcolm Gladwell suggested it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill, whether it be writing songs, designing software, teaching or playing golf. When we see a master at work, we know it. I’m not sure I agree that mastery requires 10,000 hours, but there’s no disputing that mastery takes time and effort. That creating quality takes time and effort is something many people have forgotten in today’s fast-paced world where many things we want are at our fingertips. I can Google the music charts to thousands of songs in seconds. I can research vacation rental homes in Europe without leaving home and buy a car in North Carolina with a keystroke. Those things are valuable. The bad news, though, is we’ve lost appreciation for what it takes to create something of value.
Masters make what they do look easy because they’ve spent the time behind the scenes preparing. Musicians call it “going to the woodshed.” There’s no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and going to work, and Party on the Moon had gone to the woodshed and back.
That New Year’s Eve was surreal. We were a hit. Rod Stewart met with each member of the band and said we were one of the best bands he’d ever seen. As if that weren’t commendation enough, our client, Donald Trump, sang our praises when he took the stage to address his guests. “The Band has been spectacular,” Trump said. “This is the best New Year’s Eve band we’ve ever had at Mar-a-Lago. We’ve since performed at Trump’s bash for seven years and counting.
We were ready when the call came. If you got the call today from a client who could take your business sot the next level, would you be ready? Have you invested the time in mastering your service? If not, get to work. You never know when The Donald may call, or whether he will keep calling back.
“It’s not about the call, It’s about the call back.” – Dennis Smith
This excerpt is from Chapter 13 of Dennis’ book Rock ‘n’ Roll, Martial Arts & God: Tips on Success from the Masters, available on Amazon.
