In Celebration of the Winners
They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round,They all laughed when Edison recorded sound,
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother when they said that man could fly,
They told Marconi wireless was a phoney, it's the same old cry!
There a some things we just can't imagine doing without: Post It Notes, bicycle pumps, Michael Bublé...
The chances are that 100s of household names we take for granted almost never made it. They exist only because of happy accidents and unhealthy obsessions. Some people are so convinced they have a great idea, they ignore years of rejection and make it happen anyway.
I love these people. They inspire me and drive me to be the best I can be. So, I've to select a few great individuals and share their stories with you in a short series of articles called “And The Rest Is History.”
If you've ever believed in anything and been told "No, you can't!" I'm here to prove that means nothing.
As a singer, the most commonly used phrase in my business is: "No thank you", closely followed by "Get lost", and "Exactly how old are you?"
I have many friends who spend their lives trudging from one audition to another only to be sent away because they're too young, too old, too fat or too thin.
Growing a skin thick enough to leave their self-confidence intact takes some serious self-belief. Eventually with enough talent and perseverance, they might get a lucky break and go from a call centre in Cromer to a centre spread in Heat Magazine.
After a fleeting television appearance in February 1995, I sent a brochure and promotional tape to exactly one-thousand entertainment agents. Six months later, the total number of respondents was precisely zero. Only on Boxing Day of that year did someone call me. That single call led directly to my West End break.
This modest success is inconsequential in the great scheme of things, but it was a good lesson learned. I had nine-hundred and ninety-nine nos and one yes. - that's a success rate of 0.1%. Not great odds, but it was enough.