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- Story Listed as: True Life For Adults
- Theme: Survival / Success
- Subject: Politics / Power / Abuse of Power
- Published: 03/24/2015
John Rowe is England's, Europe's and probably the world's oldest ballet dancer. He is 94 years old and started studying ballet at 80. There is an athletic runner who is 96. He holds the world senior record for elderly runners.
Grandma Moses started her international painting career at age 78. She was a housewife, who sold potato chips and practiced embroidery all her life and started painting naive art for fun. Her art is now displayed internationally and she is considered one of America’s top artistic exports.
Creativity – career – has no age limits.
If you can dream it, you can be it.
As I grow older, I realize why it always had been difficult for me to limit myself in any way at all. I always made unusual choices: recording endless cassette-tapes with my own philosophical discussions, creating audio plays with a dozen characters all played by me, enrolling into the music academy at 15 and finishing my high school diploma at 26, launching an international literary career while singing opera and so on and so forth.
That made perfect sense in the light of why I had canceled out certain choices or even said no to certain deals, because I knew that the job would actually limit my perspectives.
So, here I am, ex-musical-theatre-headliner, working in the opera chorus. Looking back, though, as to why I made the choice to join the opera chorus, I believe that it was to wake people up. That it could be possible for a person to work in such a position and still be successful on the side. Which I am.
I have never liked stereotypes. In fact, clichés are sometimes nothing more than quick explanations why someone behaves a certain way. Bottom line, stereotypes are just the shockwaves of human laziness. I would never have thought that being hired as an operachorister actually could've catapulted my international literary career. But it has.
If you can dream it, you can do it. If you can do it, you can be it.
Here are, accordingly, some more examples of cool people who followed their dreams and made or are making international careers later in life.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, incredibly popular author of “Little House on the Prairie”, published her first book when she was 65.
J.K. Rowling was a middle aged single mom when her Harry Potter-novel got accepted by a publishing house. If you haven’t heard of Harry Potter, you should worry.
Harrison Ford was a carpenter, Elvis Costello was a computer programmer, Andrea Bocelli was a lawyer, Sylvester Stallone was a deli-counter assistant, Whoppie Goldberg worked at a funeral parlor, Brad Pitt was a limo driver.
Ray Kroc, McDonalds’ founder, sold paper cups and milkshake mixers until he was 52. We are all reminded every day of what happened after that.
Harland Sanders was 65 when he became the international chicken mogul, founding Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I find myself getting myself into a position, when an opera is rehearsed on an endless loop, where I really have no choice but take a break from repeating notes on this endless repetitive basis. Eventually, you know the piece you are rehearsing. Too many rehearsals are just as bad as too few rehearsals. That is, more or less, of course, a matter open to discussion, but leaders must know when to give their employees a break.
My boss is a highly competent fellow, supremely educated, over-average intelligence, charming, diplomatic. My life for me, however, consists of much more than just singing or even singing operas.
Being as versatile as I have become is a real kick and I can count myself lucky in having a steady job as a singer and also being able to work a whole lot on the side.
That also means that my perspective, at times, is somewhat broader than some of the perspectives many colleagues present, who, for some parts, are very much into opera. For some of them, not all, life is about opera, opera and yet even more opera. When I hear a colleague say: “One day closer to my retirement!”, I cringe.
I write in the bus on the way to rehearsal on my tablet or my Smartphone, in my breaks. I have had quite a few published pieces appearing in magazines that way. One of them even completely written and submitted through my Smartphone. Yes, I also use my PC in my literary work. Don't worry. I don’t just write on my Smartphone. That would be a trick, wouldn’t it. Right now, for instance, I am writing on my Samsung laptop.
I am at a make-or-break-age, where working toward an international career is vital or not at all. I am a last-minute-guy, what can I say? In reality and fact, though, there is no age limit as to when you can decide to express yourself internationally. In this day and age, with the web at our fingertips, anything really is possible. You just got to want it real bad. Or good.
We are back to the stereotypes. Back when I was a teenager, I was told that there is such a thing as a “chorus mentality” in opera, frustrated soloists who just complain about the people singing the leading parts and rattle their keys during side gigs.
Nobody told me the truth, though. That there are plenty of opera choristers who are vocal teachers on the side, who have a whole ensemble of students, who are published poets, who have ringing high C’s more gleaming than any international tenor, who are artistic agents promoting other singers, who arrange concerts. In reality, chorus and soloists are just stereotypes, like orchestra musicians and solo musicians are clichés. We all have the same education, some of us work as soloists some of the time, some all of the time, some none at all. Some, like me, do plenty of other things: conducting, directing, teaching, painting, writing, reading, speaking, acting. In actual fact, there are no borders. I have worked and work as an actor, a musical singer, a rock-singer, a jazz vocalists. It’s all the same to me.
What you do is up to you.
You’re never too young and you’re never too old to make a decision.
Yes, family and career can mix.
So there is no reason why you shouldn't get up off your ass and do something. Don't think that the people I mentioned are more special than you. They're not. They just did it. Whenever you're waiting for something, in the doctor's office or what not, bring your tablet along and write something, grab a pencil and a paper and draw a picture. Plan a project.
Take my painting, for instance. I am by no means a great painter. But I love expressing myself in paint. I am out there, I have sold my paintings. Look at the paintings in any given art gallery. Some of the art is great. Some of it is not so great. But the artists are out there, expressing themselves.
I have a colleague who looks at me writing and painting and drawing in the breaks, telling me that he wishes he could get the necessary kick just to do it. I can only say that creativity is a decision. Nothing more. Do it. If you can dream it, you can be it.
Dreaming It - Being It(Charles E.J. Moulton)
John Rowe is England's, Europe's and probably the world's oldest ballet dancer. He is 94 years old and started studying ballet at 80. There is an athletic runner who is 96. He holds the world senior record for elderly runners.
Grandma Moses started her international painting career at age 78. She was a housewife, who sold potato chips and practiced embroidery all her life and started painting naive art for fun. Her art is now displayed internationally and she is considered one of America’s top artistic exports.
Creativity – career – has no age limits.
If you can dream it, you can be it.
As I grow older, I realize why it always had been difficult for me to limit myself in any way at all. I always made unusual choices: recording endless cassette-tapes with my own philosophical discussions, creating audio plays with a dozen characters all played by me, enrolling into the music academy at 15 and finishing my high school diploma at 26, launching an international literary career while singing opera and so on and so forth.
That made perfect sense in the light of why I had canceled out certain choices or even said no to certain deals, because I knew that the job would actually limit my perspectives.
So, here I am, ex-musical-theatre-headliner, working in the opera chorus. Looking back, though, as to why I made the choice to join the opera chorus, I believe that it was to wake people up. That it could be possible for a person to work in such a position and still be successful on the side. Which I am.
I have never liked stereotypes. In fact, clichés are sometimes nothing more than quick explanations why someone behaves a certain way. Bottom line, stereotypes are just the shockwaves of human laziness. I would never have thought that being hired as an operachorister actually could've catapulted my international literary career. But it has.
If you can dream it, you can do it. If you can do it, you can be it.
Here are, accordingly, some more examples of cool people who followed their dreams and made or are making international careers later in life.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, incredibly popular author of “Little House on the Prairie”, published her first book when she was 65.
J.K. Rowling was a middle aged single mom when her Harry Potter-novel got accepted by a publishing house. If you haven’t heard of Harry Potter, you should worry.
Harrison Ford was a carpenter, Elvis Costello was a computer programmer, Andrea Bocelli was a lawyer, Sylvester Stallone was a deli-counter assistant, Whoppie Goldberg worked at a funeral parlor, Brad Pitt was a limo driver.
Ray Kroc, McDonalds’ founder, sold paper cups and milkshake mixers until he was 52. We are all reminded every day of what happened after that.
Harland Sanders was 65 when he became the international chicken mogul, founding Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I find myself getting myself into a position, when an opera is rehearsed on an endless loop, where I really have no choice but take a break from repeating notes on this endless repetitive basis. Eventually, you know the piece you are rehearsing. Too many rehearsals are just as bad as too few rehearsals. That is, more or less, of course, a matter open to discussion, but leaders must know when to give their employees a break.
My boss is a highly competent fellow, supremely educated, over-average intelligence, charming, diplomatic. My life for me, however, consists of much more than just singing or even singing operas.
Being as versatile as I have become is a real kick and I can count myself lucky in having a steady job as a singer and also being able to work a whole lot on the side.
That also means that my perspective, at times, is somewhat broader than some of the perspectives many colleagues present, who, for some parts, are very much into opera. For some of them, not all, life is about opera, opera and yet even more opera. When I hear a colleague say: “One day closer to my retirement!”, I cringe.
I write in the bus on the way to rehearsal on my tablet or my Smartphone, in my breaks. I have had quite a few published pieces appearing in magazines that way. One of them even completely written and submitted through my Smartphone. Yes, I also use my PC in my literary work. Don't worry. I don’t just write on my Smartphone. That would be a trick, wouldn’t it. Right now, for instance, I am writing on my Samsung laptop.
I am at a make-or-break-age, where working toward an international career is vital or not at all. I am a last-minute-guy, what can I say? In reality and fact, though, there is no age limit as to when you can decide to express yourself internationally. In this day and age, with the web at our fingertips, anything really is possible. You just got to want it real bad. Or good.
We are back to the stereotypes. Back when I was a teenager, I was told that there is such a thing as a “chorus mentality” in opera, frustrated soloists who just complain about the people singing the leading parts and rattle their keys during side gigs.
Nobody told me the truth, though. That there are plenty of opera choristers who are vocal teachers on the side, who have a whole ensemble of students, who are published poets, who have ringing high C’s more gleaming than any international tenor, who are artistic agents promoting other singers, who arrange concerts. In reality, chorus and soloists are just stereotypes, like orchestra musicians and solo musicians are clichés. We all have the same education, some of us work as soloists some of the time, some all of the time, some none at all. Some, like me, do plenty of other things: conducting, directing, teaching, painting, writing, reading, speaking, acting. In actual fact, there are no borders. I have worked and work as an actor, a musical singer, a rock-singer, a jazz vocalists. It’s all the same to me.
What you do is up to you.
You’re never too young and you’re never too old to make a decision.
Yes, family and career can mix.
So there is no reason why you shouldn't get up off your ass and do something. Don't think that the people I mentioned are more special than you. They're not. They just did it. Whenever you're waiting for something, in the doctor's office or what not, bring your tablet along and write something, grab a pencil and a paper and draw a picture. Plan a project.
Take my painting, for instance. I am by no means a great painter. But I love expressing myself in paint. I am out there, I have sold my paintings. Look at the paintings in any given art gallery. Some of the art is great. Some of it is not so great. But the artists are out there, expressing themselves.
I have a colleague who looks at me writing and painting and drawing in the breaks, telling me that he wishes he could get the necessary kick just to do it. I can only say that creativity is a decision. Nothing more. Do it. If you can dream it, you can be it.
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