I read this story in the book Real Artists Don’t Starve by Jeff Goins and it made my heart flutter.
The year was 1598. Two brothers, Richard and Cuthbert Burbage, had inherited a theatre from their father when he passed away. The problem was, for a number of years they were not able to perform any shows in it as the landlord wouldn’t let them out of the contract and the rent was too steep.
Then they realized something. The landlord owned the land but not the building.
So the acting troupe, called the Chamberlain’s Men, came on horseback and took the theatre apart. They carried it to another piece of land and re-built it there. The new building was known as the Globe Theatre — the first actor-owned theatre. And one of the men in the acting troupe was named William.
Shakespeare.
The brothers asked for a 70 pound investment in the theatre from each man in the troupe. This was a lot of money at the time, but Shakespeare took a chance. He invested in the new theatre and the following year he wrote a few plays including Much Ado About Nothing, Henry V and Julius Caesar.
He took a chance on something out of the box. He invested in himself. And hundreds of years later global high school curriculum would never be the same again.
What decisions are we facing that seem scary? How could investing in ourselves lead to a scenario that might reward us ten-fold? Is there someone in our lives like the original theatre landlord who is holding our feet to the fire? Is there a solution that could set us free to live the life we were destined to live?
As Shakespeare aptly said, “To be, or not to be: that is the question.”
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”