Using What You Have to Get What You Want

You Can't Use What You Don't Have!

Growing up with a stepfather involved in politics in a small town allowed me to see inside the lives of the affluent. Because he was not my real father, I did not consider that my real life. My real life involved a great deal of creativity and daydreaming, along with a few really good friends, rich or poor.

I saw the way lawyers lived, I hung out with their kids and I even got to ride on the Mayor's boat, which, if memory serves me correctly, was exactly four feet longer than my stepfather's boat (his was only 42 feet long). I got to ride in the newest Lincoln Continental every year or so and I went on several fishing trips, duck hunts and even spent a great deal of time at the family cottage. Then, eventually (and inevitably), the family broke up, my mother moved us to another town and we had a significant drop in family income. Eventually (and inevitably), I started to work at the age of thirteen.

I knew that the option of driving the Lincoln was out of the question and I didn't even ask my mother if I could drive her Impala when I was 16. So, I was without a car until about the age of 27, which suited me just fine because I had a bike, I could draw and I could make super-8 movies - activities which didn't require huge sums of money. I also began to teach myself how to play guitar when I was 17, because I wanted to experience what rock stars experienced.

I mention the movies and the drawing because that's what got me into college when I was 18. The constant guitar playing got me into a band in college and eventually I formed a fairly successful band of my own with two other wanna-be rock stars. That led to me learning how to record music since I was the one with some experience with it (I began recording at the age of 11, but nothing so formal as music). That led to a couple of CD's distributed world wide, a couple of music videos, some sync licenses for music used on film and TV and a few years of touring on and off.

All of that led to the opportunity to write articles, start working as a freelancer, teach some classes and speak in public with the goal of becoming a consultant. That led to more opportunities including travel, more articles and getting decent sums of money to showcase my expertise. That leads me to now - my career is still evolving.

So, when I look back and take stock, I remember two main things I told myself over and over that kept me going in the direction I wanted to go and those are:

1) Never listen to somebody who tells you that you 'can't' or 'shouldn't' do something you really want to do, and
2) Never let a lack of tools prevent you from doing what you want to do.

It's your life, live it the way you want.

Cheers!

- Buck Moore