This is installment #7 of my 8-part blog series related to the video below.
I don't know if you noticed this, but there's a person sitting on the couch behind me for a section while I was playing. Check him out at about the 6-second mark...
A short while after I was done playing, Jimmy (we'll call him Jimmy) walked around the corner, hoodie pulled up over his head.
He tentatively tapped a couple keys; then glanced around quickly, and sat down at the bench.
The bench lid opens and slams slightly when you sit on it, and the loud, hollow sound startled him a bit.
Then he starts playing.
He's amazing.
Waaaaay better than what you see me doing in the video.
He's playing on keys all over the place, moving his hands over each other, swaying with the rhythm and melody.
Jimmy is talented. So gifted. I'm in awe. I just sit there and listen to the progressions, the little mistakes, the minor corrections in an otherwise fantastic public performance.
Every now and then, he stops briefly to reset or think of something else to play. And he plays everything beautifully.
He goes on for well over 10 or 15 minutes.
He finishes one of his pieces, stands up, and turns around and looks at me. He doesn't know if he should say something or not, so I do.
We start talking.
I learn that Jimmy is 12 years old and has been practicing piano an hour a day since he was 6.
That most of what he played for the entire coffee shop was just stuff he came up with on his own. I couldn't recognize anything that he was playing, but to learn the complex melodies and harmonies he'd been playing were his own creation floored me.
He was nervous to talk to me. But I got a sense that he played because I played.
And that's what leads me into #7: Leadership Inertia...
Jimmy is 100 times a better pianist than I am, and half my age...but why wasn't he on the piano the whole time?
He needed a push. He needed inertia. I think I was his kick.
And sometimes I think that's all a leader needs to be...a kick. A start. An encouragement.
Maybe I didn't cause Jimmy to play that day, but what if I never played or never even went? Would he have still stepped up to the ivory keys in public on his own?
So that's what I call all of you to, my goalie friends. Be the push for your teammates, by doing what you do to the best of your ability.
It doesn't have to be perfect, I know I'm certainly not. But doing your best and showing up is sometimes enough for others to follow and create something even greater than just yourself.
Lead by example. Lead by starting. Then watch others take what you've done and run with it with a smile.
Stay frosty, friends. Lead.
Josh
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