dont stop believing This past weekend I watched a pretty inspiring documentary that Id recommend to you so you round out 2013 in fine form. Its called Dont Stop Believing. And its all about a poor kid from the Philippines who made his wildest dreams come true. Heres the backstory... A few years ago the 80s supergroup Journey was looking for a new lead singer after legendary vocalist Steve Perry left the band. The guitar player Neil Schon spent weeks surfing the Net hoping to find someone to at least get them through the big tour theyd planned. He watched video after video but no one even came close to the mastery they needed to forge ahead. Late one night, seriously ready to give up, Schon went onto YouTube. He happened to see a video by a young man named Arnel Pineda who was singing Journey hits, belting them out like his life depended on it. Pineda had experienced a rough ride: --His mother died of heart disease when he was just 13 years old. --The family couldnt afford rent so he lived in the streets. --He worked odd jobs and often suffered from hunger. --He was close to giving up on his career as a vocalist. Mesmerized by the performance on YouTube, Schon sent an email to Pinedas friend who had posted the video. His friend thought it was a joke. But then Schon followed up a little later with a personal call to the singer, inviting him to an audition in Marin County, California. Pineda was speechless. The first day of the audition was a mess. Pineda was jet-lagged, disoriented and outright scared to be singing in front of his heroes. The next day was a bit better. Something shifted. The members of journey thought maybe Schon was actually onto something as Pineda stepped up his game. The kid was pretty good. Day 3 magic filled the studio. The musicians were blown away by what they heard. And Journey offered Pineda a chance to go out on tour with them. Get this... ...Arnel Pinedas first performance was at a concert in Chile that was televised to 25,000,000 people. In the documentary Pineda said that the stress was so severe before he went on stage that he lost his balance and everything seemed to be in slow motion. But as you know so well, what makes mastery is not being fearless but experiencing your natural fear and doing what needs to be done anyway. Within minutes of being in front of that audience, Pineda started having fun. He stopped being scared. And he proceeded to rock the house. Through the tour, his humility, work ethic, willingness to learn and passion to win wowed the members of Journey. At the end of it, Pineda fully expected to be thanked. And then to return home, satisfied that hed lived his dream. But his bandmates had another plan in mind...they offered him a permanent role as Journeys lead singer. He became a full member of the legendary group (80 million records sold) and would receive 1/5 of all profit--exactly like the others. (Yes, the world has lots of decent, generous and good people in it). Pineda continues to tour the world with Journey and has recorded a number of successful records with them. He has bought a home for his family, become a famous rock star and lives a life he never could have imagined. The lesson for us: dont stop believing. Ever. ...The impossible is generally the untried.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 08:58:35 +0000
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