Fifty-five years ago, in February 1964, the Beatles landed in New York for their first American tour. There were 5,000 screaming fans at the airport to greet them. Beatlemania had begun.
But it wasn’t always that way. Paul, John, Ringo and George could play music and write songs, but when they first got together, they couldn’t book any gigs in England. So their manager got them a job in Hamburg, Germany playing in small clubs. They played five hours a night for countless nights in a row. After multiple trips to Hamburg they had performed 1,100 hours before they ever “made it big.”
As Malcolm Gladwell explains in Outliers, they went to Hamburg as four musical fellows. They came back as The Beatles.
This is what action and hard work combined with passion translates into. Success.
We may have a flashbulb memory of the “overnight success” of this British band. But it was a long time coming.
It’s the same for all of us. We may not end up playing sold out stadiums, but we each have a gift we have to hone.
What time can we carve out to work on our gift? To sharpen our axe? What books can we read? What conversations can we have? What action can we take?
As The Beatles sang, “You may say I’m a dreamer. But I’m not the only one.” Add some action to your dreams and hold on for the ride.