It’s the journey, not the destination
We’ve all heard that phrase. We have an idea of what it means, but have we really experienced it?!
I have a Grammy certificate for a song I co-wrote that’s on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack (Music from the Motion Picture). The winning of the award lasts about a minute. But my favorite part of the entire experience was writing that song at 2:30 in the morning in Bombay, India. The fact that it was a completely unplanned session - that I ran into A.R. Rahman in the recording studio at 10 o’clock at night and we were both surprised to see each other - I was thinking to myself, “Oh, I’m so lucky!” A year later, I found out he was thinking at that moment, “How did you know I needed you?!”
We hung out that night in the studio. I listened to music he was making for another film. We had dinner with Amir Khan - The dinner was delicious, the conversation was fantastic, and at 2:30 a.m., he pulled up a track and said he needed lyrics to this song, handing me a yellow legal pad. He said the film is complete and they’re waiting for the soundtrack. I asked him the theme of the film, the story he wanted to tell in this song, and to describe the two main characters.
I didn’t know it was a Danny Boyle film. I didn’t know anything about Slumdog Millionaire. I just heard a beautiful melody, and he asked me if I could keep the title “Dreams On Fire.”
A.R. left the room and went to the other studio to work on another soundtrack while I wrote three pages of stanzas. I showed him all my lyrics and he pointed to one stanza on page 2 and said start with that. The beautifully soulful singer Suzanne D’Mello was in the booth and I vocal produced the session. We were done at 5:30 AM.
Every detail of that experience - the emotional ride of that night, the joy and surprise of the experience - THAT'S WHAT I FEEL AND REMEMBER. THAT'S WHAT HAD AN IMPACT.
Sitting in a dark movie theater in Santa Monica after I got off the plane in Los Angeles to watch this movie I wrote a song for, that’s a special moment.
Singing the song on tour not knowing it was even in the show, with Simon Long next to me waiting for the surprise to be revealed, that’s a special moment!
Yes, having credentials opens doors and can change your career trajectory, but all the meaningful moments of personal growth come before that.
When somebody wins an award, they cry, they’re ecstatic, they bring their team up, they thank everybody - starting with parents! They know the entire road and all the sweat and all the tears and all the everything it took to get to that moment. That moment is 15 seconds long. A song or an album or film that took years to create, promote, tour, and sing hundreds of times…
A project can be stalled or stopped in so many different ways at so many points along the road from idea to distribution. It’s every hurdle we overcome along the way, every pivot, every adjustment, those are the real wins!
So when you find yourself challenged, your timeline bumped back, opportunities at your fingertips — take it all in, be in the moment, and recognize the win or the loss you’re having right then and there.
Life is fast and long.
Try to notice all the moments on your way to a big goal.
It truly is the journey, not the destination.