What did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a baseball player! I wanted to be a pitcher like Bob Gibson, or
more like Vida Blue, because he was left-handed like me, and he pitched for the
Oakland A’s, my favorite baseball team, next to the Pirates.
OK, that dream died quickly because I really wasn’t that
good of a baseball pitcher. As I grew
up, as I prepared for college and throughout college, I wanted to be a sportswriter. I would eat and breathe anything related to
sports or writing, I devoted myself to honing my skills to become the best sportswriter
I could possibly be.
A funny thing happened along the way. Apparently, the dream of writing for a
newspaper became virtually everyone’s dream, because at one point, statistics
said that if every journalist died today, there would be two coming out of
college to replace them. If I were
lucky, I could find a job at a small, local paper, starting off writing
obituaries and announcements, and maybe, I could eventually work my way up to
writing real news stories. While I’m
sure some or many were willing to pay those dues, I wasn’t, I gave up that
dream, and lived the dream of most young people, I became an accountant.
Because of my love of literature and writing, I also had a
dream to write a book. To a certain
extent, that dream was even bigger. I
don’t know if any of you have tried, but writing a book is incredibly hard
work. It takes a great deal of thought,
planning, imagination, perseverance, pain, suffering, and, oh yeah,
talent. At one point, many years ago, I
wrote a short novel, but I can safely say, it really wasn’t very good. I have no idea what I ever did with it, I
just didn’t see any real value in what I had produced.
A new dream crept in recently, and this one really came out
of nowhere. About two years ago, I
completed my Yoga Teacher Training and became a Registered Yoga Teacher. Now, the main reason I did this was purely to
learn more about yoga, I had no aspirations to teach or do anything with the
certification. Out of the blue, I want
to own a yoga studio! Spoiler alert, I don’t own a yoga studio. I did research it though, I read how to start
one, looked at properties, considered getting some consulting from studio
owners, but I never took it past the thought stages.
Do you ever wonder, what separates those who live their
dream and those who just, well, dream? Specifically,
I’m referring to the old saying or challenge you would get growing up, “what do
you want to be when you grow up?” For
whatever reason, some of us nail it, and some of us don’t. What separates those who succeed from those
who still dream about success or gave up on that dream long ago?
As you can possibly tell, I’ve put a lot of thought into
this one. I’m fascinated by the
difference, the edge, the drive that some people have that others don’t. I’m going to share three stories with you,
people I’ve had the opportunity to live vicariously through. It will become obvious why I picked them, but
they lived their dreams, and they lived dreams that in essence parallel mine,
but they made it happen. I’ll share
their stories, and I’ll share my thoughts on how or why they succeeded, by
knowing them or simply watching them.
Are you out of
your fucking mind?
Dejan Kovacevic just passed the 10th anniversary
of launching his online sports journalism outlet, DK Pittsburgh Sports. He has created an incredible website that
provides outstanding coverage for all the sports teams in Pittsburgh. The success of this site is amazing, and
really, is incomparable.
I’ve followed Mr. Kovacevic’s writing for many years, back
when he was a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and then with the
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. When he
created his own forum, I abandoned all the other news outlets and moved to his
site.
There are good reporters or sportswriters out there, but Mr.
Kovacevic is not just that. He is an
incredible writer, who can create a beautiful story, who just happens to write
about sports. I’ve read good sports
writers in my lifetime, but there are few, very few, who can bring such life,
such humanity to a sports story, and I love to read whatever he writes. As I noted in a previous blog, he could write
about bocci ball, badminton, curling, whatever, I’d read it, even though I’ve
quit watching sports. He is just that
good. And probably the best piece I’ve
ever read from him is the story of how he launched this site 10 years ago, it
was a work of art, detailing the reaction from a friend (noted above), the
discussions with his incredibly supportive wife, Dali, and just the whole
process of how this came to be.
I had the privilege of visiting his headquarters/shop
recently, and I got to meet and talk to Mr. Kovacevic for the first time ever,
and it didn’t disappoint at all. What I
loved the most was hearing him talk about the writing process, I had just
commented on his piece from the previous night’s Pirate game, and how much I
loved it. He explained to me that he
missed an opportunity and didn’t quite capture the story as he would have liked
to have. That is why he is so good, even
when he produced a great story, he felt it could have been better.
Blood, sweat
and tears
Many years ago, when I worked at Barco, I had a colleague at
our headquarters in Belgium, Ann Galland, who worked in marketing. I knew Ann, we had a professional
relationship, but honestly, not a strong one, simply because she was in
marketing, and I was a Chief Financial Officer, our paths didn’t often
cross. We had a good professional
relationship, but that was about it.
We became Facebook friends, and over the last few years, I
had noticed Ann wrote a novel, titled “Aroma”, I think back in 2022. I was fascinated how in the world she did
this, as noted, it’s an incredible amount of work. I would read her posts on Facebook, and I’d
see book signings, information on how well her book was doing, book reviews,
whatever Ann posted about her book.
Much to my surprise, this year Ann published another novel,
“Bitter”, which also has done incredibly well.
I must confess, I haven’t read them, when I looked on Amazon, it only
had a Dutch version, so I can’t comment on how good they are. But it’s safe for me to say, based on some of
the reviews I’ve seen, she’s done quite a good job. Some examples:
- "Bitter" is an immersive reading experience that exceeds expectations
- For fans of subtly written stories full of emotions and depth, this book is an absolute must-read
- Ann Galland proves her talent once again, and "Bitter" stands proudly alongside her predecessor as a strong novel full of intriguing characters and unexpected twists
After seeing all the reviews and success of her second
novel, I reached out to Ann, and simply asked, what is the secret of her
success? Her response was relatively
simple:
“There is no
secret….it is just blood, sweat and tears.
Hard work. I think, and being
lucky that the market notices you have written something that is a lot better
than average?
I get the first part, I’m sure she worked incredibly hard on
this. Not sure she gives herself enough
credit for the second part, she obviously has written some very good novels,
and while there could always be a certain level of luck involved, I think it
probably pales in comparison to the quality of what she has written.
You will do
great things
Have you ever met someone, and quickly you realize you are
in the presence of someone special?
That’s the way I felt when I met Carley DeMarco.
About two years ago, I did my Yoga Teacher Training with
Carley and eight other young ladies, and while all of them possessed certain
gifts, Carley had something special about her.
She was incredibly bright, knowledgeable about many topics, very
articulate, a vociferous worker, she seemed to be involved in so many
endeavors, I had no idea how she was able to do so much.
After a period, as we were walking through the woods at our
YTT training center, I made that comment to Carley, I started it off with “You
are doing great things, and you will do great things”. She is one of those people who you know will
be incredibly successful at something, or whatever, they set their mind to.
As we all left our yoga training, some of us, many of us,
felt we probably wouldn’t teach yoga, we just wanted the experience. Carley did plan to teach, but she took it to
a whole new level. Carley opened a yoga
studio in Clayton, Georgia. Keep in
mind, I think at the time, Carley was 28.
She had the courage, the business sense, the vision to open a yoga
studio. While on a certain level, I was
shocked and amazed, then again, I wasn’t.
As I said, I just knew Carley was destined for doing what many of us
only dream of. While she had to deal
with “messy schedules, a never-ending to-do list, and sometimes, loneliness”,
she also was able to experience a “heart beating out of chest kind of excitement
and a sense of purpose that comes with it”.
Which brings me to the reason or root of this post, how or
why do some live a dream, and why do some just dream? I don’t think there are any simple answers,
but from my small sample size, based on people who have done or accomplished
what I would have liked to have accomplished, I have a few ideas. I don’t believe there is any secret formula,
but I think there’s a mixture, and a higher dose of one rather than the other
in some of the cases, but here goes:
·
You must be very talented at whatever it
is. That is clearly true for the three
profiled above.
·
You must be willing to work incredibly
hard. I don’t mean just hard, I mean
dedicating massive amounts of time and effort into the endeavor, and
essentially living it.
·
You must be driven, insanely driven, you must
have such passion for whatever that dream is, and you aren’t willing to let
that dream go. There will be times where
self-doubt comes in, when you, or those close to you, believe you are insane, but
that passion will override any of those doubts, and you will believe that you
will succeed.
Am I jealous? Oh
Heavens, no! I am so happy and excited
for each of them, and to be honest, it’s been fun to watch. I love to see Ann’s posts of her books’ successes;
I look forward to them and enjoy her success.
Carley is one of the most incredible people I’ve had the honor of
spending time with, and I can’t wait to see what she does and how successful
she becomes. When I had the chance to
finally meet Dejan Kovacevic in person, I was giddy. For me, he is an icon of writing, and I could
have listened to him talk about writing all day. Not one bit of jealousy, I love to see how
each of them has succeeded so tremendously.
Where did I fall short?
Probably on a certain level, talent.
I was a good writer, but probably not great. When it comes to hard work, I used to say at
WIKA, no one can outwork me, not necessarily something to be proud of, but I
never shied away from work. I would have
to say the biggest area where I fell short was just not quite enough passion to
make it happen. I think there were too
many other things, or really, too many other people that I loved too much to
take any more time away from them than I already was.
And all is not lost.
Laurel and I have created a yoga space in our home, and we offer free
yoga one night a week, so far. We’re
trying to provide yoga to those who can’t afford studio fees. No, I don’t own a studio, but I’m happy with
what we’ve created.
As for my writing, I’ve decided to write a children’s
book. I’m in the early stages, I have
the premise, the storyline, I have a plan for the illustration, and I’ve done
quite a bit of research on what makes a children’s book successful. I have no grand plans to be an ongoing
writer, but I want to at least give one book a shot.
Alas, I think my sports writing career is well behind me,
but that’s OK. And I just don’t see myself
pitching in the Major Leagues someday, but I think I can live with that. I’ll have to let those two dreams die a much-needed
death….