Saturday night, the entire crowd rose to their feet and gave a deafening standing ovation. And still, I was surprised by the nature of this accolade. It wasn’t after a crescendo of some well-known piece of music. It wasn’t after the virtuoso performed the intricate violin solo. It wasn’t the dazzling performance** given by the artist, but his mere spoken words that compelled us to our feet. I went for the music and walked away with a philosophical life lesson.
That night, Yanni recounted the time when he performed at the Herodes Atticus Theater, built in 161 A.D., at the Acropolis in Athens. Yes, that Acropolis. In honor of his 25-year anniversary of that event, he shared that it had been a dream of his to perform there and he was able to fulfill it.
If you don’t know Yanni, he is a world renown musician, pianist, composer, and music producer. Sixteen of his albums have peaked at No. 1 in Billboard’s Top New Age Album category. His Live at the Acropolis is the 2nd bestselling music video of all time (right behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller). He is a global artist, a humanitarian, and an NY Times Bestselling Author.
He advised (and I am paraphrasing) that if he could have a dream and fulfill it, that all of us can too. I am no different from you, he offered. Follow your dreams. Make them a reality. Persistence is the key. Not giving up is the requirement. That’s all. Not giving up until the dream has been achieved.
His dream wasn’t only to be a world-famous artist, but rather an artist whose music was worthy of being played in places as historic as the Acropolis. An artist who has performed at the Taj Mahal, the Kremlin, the Forbidden City, the Egyptian Pyramids, Lebanon’s ancient city of Byblos, and many more equally exotic places.
And he achieved all those things without being formally taught music but rather a type of “musical shorthand,” that he developed himself. He achieved a dream of playing at the most beautiful places in the world with just a love and talent for music; that was all he had.
What resonated with me most of all was that his dream was gargantuan, and he could have dismissed it at any time. After becoming famous, he could have shrug off his dream of playing at the Acropolis. When his first album hit No.1, he could have stopped. After getting Grammy nominations, he could have given up. But he didn’t. And even after finally performing at the Acropolis, he could have stopped but he didn’t. He pursued to play in all those other venues too.
In listening to Yanni speak, I wondered, are we all that different? In all our minds, we have “big dreams,” but do we do enough to make them come true? Or are we satisfied with leaving empty handed or even hands half full? How many of us pursue our dreams to the end?
I think most of us fit into the category of a couple of excuses:
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we don’t have any big dreams (we are too afraid to fail to have them)
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we don’t believe in our dreams enough, or
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we give up on our dreams (most likely too soon).
Yanni’s advice is crisp. There are not a series of processes or steps to follow. It’s not about encouragement, but expectations, from yourself. It is easier to say you tried and failed than to say, with a straight face to all the expectant faces in your life (the mirror, your friends, family, peers, etc.) that you are still trying. Even harder to say, years later, you are simply not giving up until your dream comes true.
The difference is subtle but noteworthy. One offers guidance, the other acts as an ultimatum. One nudges us to keep trying, the other stands as a requirement, like oxygen. One serves as a coaching mechanism, and the other openly hides as a universal law: all those that succeed have never given up.
And according to Yanni, it is the secret pathway to success. At critical points, instead of feeling like a failure, know that you are on the path of your dream simply because you have not yet given up!
**Note: The concert itself was amazing and I highly recommend it!
- Link to Yanni Live at the Acropolis
- Favorite quote on persistence: “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” – Calvin Coolidge