Be ready for the most amazing moment in your life
The astronaut Chris Hadfield became world famous by going viral with his poignant rendition of Space Oddity by David Bowie, recorded during his mission on the international space station.
This hit made a star out of Chris and launched him into a stratosphere of global fame not normally afforded to astronauts.
This left the public clamouring for more from Chris and so we were given the autobiography, An Astronaut’s Guide To Life on Earth: Life Lessons From Space.
It’s a great read (and listen as an audiobook as Chris narrates it himself) where you get to understand the decades of learning and sacrifice that go into the preparation for that ride of a lifetime into space.
There are so many amazing anecdotes that illustrate the lessons Chris wants to convey for living a good life.
Like the time that Elton John was coming to town.
The Astronaut, Elton and Rocket Man
Elton was going to play a big concert in Canada…
“I was flying airplanes and air shows in Canada. And Elton John was flying in that day to do a concert in Windsor, Ontario. And I thought the odds were extremely small, but they were convinced that we were going to meet Elton John. I went, OK, what’s the worst thing that could happen?
I meet Elton John, and Elton John and I are talking, and he finds out that not only am I an astronaut, but maybe he loves astronauts, and he wants the astronaut to come up onstage.
What would be the only thing that might happen if he finds out that an astronaut who’s up on stage with him plays guitar. What song could they play together ? “Rocket Man”.
So that afternoon I sat down and learned “Rocket Man.” In the slim chance that the worst case scenario were to happen, I wanted to be prepared. And what happened was we did actually meet Elton John. He turned out to be a really nice guy. But fortunately for both of us, I never ended up onstage playing “Rocket Man”.
But my whole life, I’ve been getting ready to play “Rocket Man”.
And sometimes it works out for the best”
All that preparation.
And nothing happened.
But if it had, Chris would have been amazing playing Rocket Man with Elton, because that’s just the way that Chris lives his life - massive preparation to be perfect in execution.
It is similar to the story of one of my best friends.
Gabor and Green Day
Gabor is Hungarian and lives in Budapest.
He has always been a huge fan of punk music and he’s played drums in punk bands since his teenage years.
His favourite band is Green Day and when they came to play at the Sport Arena in Budapest in 2005, Gabor was in the crowd that night, right at the front.
When they got to their 10th song, Knowledge, the band asked for musicians from the audience to come up and play with them.
A once in a lifetime opportunity!
Amazingly, Gabor got picked out of the crowd, when Green Day frontman, Billie Joe was calling for a drummer.
He got up on stage and sat behind the drum kit.
He had practised and played thousands of hours in his life, and now it all came down to this moment.
Before this he had only played small clubs and pubs in small towns.
Now he was sitting in front of 20,000 Green Day fans, surrounded by incredibly expensive drums and more speakers than he’d ever seen in his life.
Gabor says that when he hit that first stick on the drum it was so loud that it sounded like a bomb had gone off.
But he didn’t falter.
He didn’t fail.
Those endless hours of preparation meant that he could totally enjoy an exceptional moment that he would remember his whole life.
Abbey Rd and the page turner
In the late 90s, I was introduced to the best friend of my boss at the time.
That friend was Paul Schwartz, an American composer, who was in London to record his classical fusion album in Studio 1 at Abbey Rd Studios.
That is HUGE.
I had been playing and writing music all my life, so my boss invited me along to see Paul do his thing in Abbey Rd - no-one is ever going to turn down that, right?
We arrived, super excited to see that incredible room where so much incredible musical history has been created.
Paul was there with a very impressive Steinway Grand Piano, surrounded by an enormous orchestra.
When you record with an orchestra in Abbey Rd, there is a fixer who brings together the best musicians from all the different London orchestras.
So, you will have on 1st violin someone from the Royal Philharmonic, on 2nd violin someone from the London Philharmonic, on 3rd violin someone from the London Symphony Orchestra and so on.
Basically, the best of the best.
The sound was beautiful, intense and quite overwhelming.
We were actually standing inside the enormous room no#1, not the control booth, to feel the power of this massive sound in full effect.
It was intense and glorious.
After they had recorded one song with Paul conducting, the next song had Paul also playing on that fantastic piano.
He knew I did music and said it would be useful if I could turn the pages on his sheet music for him while he played with the orchestra and, “Did I want to?”.
To be honest, we had only been there about 15 minutes and we had been as quiet as mice, so as not to disturb the proceedings, enraptured in the incredible sound and performance of these world class musicians.
And the next thing I knew, I was sitting on a piano stool at the centre of the action.
All those years of reading music, practising in my room, hating having to learn classical guitar when I wanted to be a rock star…
Those thousands of hours of becoming one with the musical stave, so that it went beyond a thought process and turned into a language that my brain didn’t need to translate…
It was all encapsulated in this moment.
Do NOT make a mistake!
All of these fantastic musicians are creating magic around you.
Any slip up costs time and a LOT of money.
Concentrate!
Feel the music.
Be just ahead of the notes on the stave.
Stand up, turn the page and sit down without making a creak or a whisper.
It. Was. Intense.
But thankfully, I managed to do what needed to be done.
Because of all that preparation for something that I could never have imagined would happen.
This below is the track which I had the honour of turning the pages of music for…
Learn, Prepare and Be Ready
Whatever you are learning, it may lead to something that you can’t even conceive right now.
An opportunity that you couldn’t see coming.
A situation where you become a hero (just for one day).
A moment that could change your life.
There is incredible joy in learning just because learning new stuff is awesome.
But there is also a world of unimaginable and fantastic opportunities out there when you are ready.
It may come way sooner than you think, or far later than you could have dreamed possible… like for this young gentleman below.
Whatever you are learning… Enjoy the preparation!
