If You Want to Do Something - Do It!

By Melanie Keveles

How many times do I have to learn this lesson before it doesn't surprise me each time I encounter it? Years ago I learned that if I wanted to become a career consultant (that was before I trained to be a coach), I had to simply find an audience and start practicing my craft.

I rounded up a group of people in New York, led a workshop based on materials I borrowed from my mentor and could truthfully say I was a Career Consultant from that day forward. It was as important for my self-esteem as anything else that I had that experience under my belt. That gig led to my consulting at Monsanto, which led to my outplacement job with the first outplacement company in St. Louis. That experience led to my own business, a book deal for Fired for Success: How to Turn Losing Your Job into the Opportunity of a Lifetime! By simply doing something, I started a chain of events that extends more than 25 years into the future!

So yesterday, when I saw two stories on CBS Sunday Morning that contained the same lesson, it didn't take me long to make a note to myself to write about this issue.

Being Discovered on YouTube

You might like the music of the rock group, Journey or even have purchased one of their 70 million albums sold over the years. If you are a fan, you might know that this group has been in decline since its lead tenor, Steve Perry, left in 1996 to have a hip replaced and never returned. Two other lead singers who joined the group in the past decade never captured the magic Perry had created.

This difficult situation put the whole band in disarray for years. Yet when their 1981 signature hit "Don't Stop Believin" played last year at the end of the final episode of the popular HBO series Sopranos, the band saw a great opportunity for a comeback ... if only they had a lead singer!

Dean Castranovo, one of the band members, told Sunday Morning he was driven nuts by not having a singer and being able to go out on the road at that point.

Not leaving the situation to chance, another member of the group, Neal Schon used the Internet to search for a new lead singer. He was looking for a "legacy sound, a tenor voice... with soul and emotion."

After two days of surfing YouTube, he came upon a video of Arnel Pineda, a 40 year old Filipino who sang with a group called The Zoo, mimicking everybody from Sting to Led Zeppelin.

When he heard the young singer belt out Journey's own "Faithfully," Schon picked up the phone and called the Philippines, inviting Pineda for an audition in the United States. After he arrived, Arnel Pineda was immediately asked to join the group - there was no doubt in his talent.

A Remarkable Background

Arnel Pineda has been singing from an early age, remembering at five how his mother would ask him to sing along with her as she crooned with Barbara Streisand and Karen Carpenter on the radio.

His parents, both tailors, would create outfits for him to use in performances as they sent him out to participate in singing contests. Being shy, he would often run away as they chased after him with a tape measure.

Sadly, his mother died when Arnel was 13 after a long illness which bankrupt the family. For some period he was homeless, with no more than a piece of biscuit to eat for three days at a time.

But he used the gift his mother gave him, crooning in Hong Kong nightclubs.

Like the line from the song, Pineda's advice to all of us is not to give up - "don't stop believin."

What his story reinforces is the power of just doing what he wanted to do - not hoping to sing with a big band and waiting around for his ship to come in - but getting into action and grabbing whatever singing opportunities he could find. Providence honored a man who was already doing what he intended to do - sing.

Starting From Scratch

Another story exemplifies the same lesson: Whoopi Goldberg, a high school dropout from the projects of New York today is one of only 13 people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award.

She too started from humble beginnings even though she had a sense from an early age she wanted to act. In her case, she actually got caught up in drugs on the streets of New York. After a stint in rehab, she reoriented herself to her dream. Her experience growing through her naivety on the streets grew into various character sketches she wove into her own one woman monologue performance she called The Spook show.

Taking the initiative to create and perform her character sketches brought Whoopi Goldberg notice. Little by little she made her way from stage to stage until she ended up impressing director Mike Nichols who was instantly taken in and offered to bring the show to Broadway. Among the 156 sold-out performances which were also taped and shown on HBO, she caught the attention of director Steven Spielberg who cast her in The Color Purple.

Again, the moral of this story is that Whoopi did herself her biggest favor by getting into action and creating her performance - doing what she wanted to do by just doing it!

The question is: What could you just do - get into action on - that will propel you into the future that's awaiting you?

Melanie Keveles, Master Certified Coach, helps people live their dreams instead of dreaming of living. Do you have a secret dream that you yearn to make real? Discover how Melanie has helped others achieve success, change their careers, and rediscover joy. Visit website at http://www.startingfreshcoaching.com

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