Having never achieved what The World considers 'success' I and the rest of us non-celebs or non-whatevers (business owners, college grads, insert your version of success here) are plagued with endless retrospectives of others people's careers. One such offering has made me reassess my thinking about what I have been 'missing'.
I was watching a documentary called Hired Guns the other day and marveling at how the same lessons I've had to face were faced in a different way by the people represented in the film. 'Hired Guns' refers to session musicians who are called upon to work a gig with a band, those gigs being A. Filling a necessary slot in a band's developmental stages, B. Being 'the guy' that helps them get through a portentious recording session, C. Filling a critical player's role on a band's upcoming or current tour, or D. Touring for years or decades with the same band or different headlining bands.
Experienced by these people were the usual workplace hazards that I've had to face- betrayal, lack of job security, being liked and in or disliked and out, sudden shifts in management's direction, dissatisfaction with one's current job, group chemistry, cruel bosses, low pay, the compulsion to strike out on one's own, workplace tragedy, riding towards heady success or feeling that the road the group is on is leading to a dead end. That's a pretty comprehensive list, but there may be more.
Shredding is our passion.
Flavio Gasperini- Unsplash.com
From this grab bag of workplace/group dynamic similarities it's easy to see that if you need to get schooled it doesn't matter where you're placed. Aspiring rock muscians might think they're getting away from a lot of the troubles that ordinary people have to face but the lessons they need to learn will inevitably find them. It is the way of it and I couldn't help but nod my head a lot thinking "been there" when various band members were talking about their experiences, so close to home were some of them for me even though I hadn't been in the music business like they were, chasing The Dream of every teenage guy, achingly near to the top or actually there, but then again I was experiencing grand dramas in my own peculiar way at the time because the crises I faced were as real to me as theirs were. The stakes for me might not have been nearly as high but the emotions were and I guess that's what counts when you're learning about something. You get what you are willing and able to deal with.
The amazing thing about these guys, the 'hired guns', was that all of them had been near or at the top at one time or another and how brief their stay there was once they got there. Of course I knew that from before, that fame was fleeting, but to hear them open up about what it was like for them was relevatory. Having such heady experiences had pressed buttons deep inside of them, core issues had definitely been faced, but then again I had had my buttons pushed too during my times in the fire, only in a different way.
If we had each faced our inner issues in a different setting or arena in order for them to play out what difference did it make? I can't think of any. We had individually crafted the ways and means to achieve the understandings that we needed in order to proceed, round out aspects of our characters, and seat lessons in our souls that we'll never forget so that we'd be (most of us) better people in the end.
Some people in the film went a different way, they didn't learn their lessons and sort of wasted the opportunity, in my view, which was sad because they'll just recreate another arena in which to stage another drama when the time is right and they're ready to try, try again.
You coulda titled this documentary "The Path We're All On" or something like that because- fame/schmame. That's only a tool that some of us use to get there- to the place where we've experienced it all, in our own unique ways, and now contain within each of us that precious essence called wisdom.