The 5 AM Snooze

My Freshman year at college, I went to a beginning guitar class with a friend a few times. The instructor was a HUGE Beatles fan. His curriculum for the class was to play Beatles songs, and only Beatles songs, the entire semester. This brought me to a realization - the Beatles wrote a LOT of songs!

During a pause between "Love Me Do" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand," the instructor made a comment that really impacted me.
"You know," he said, "The Beatles weren't popular right away. They wrote over 100 songs before ONE of them made it to the radio."

What?
I had seen "That Thing You Do." I thought the Beatles were just like The Wonders - their first song was an instant hit.




I once heard a story about a world-class violinist who performed countless masterpieces at a performance in one of the great halls of Europe. At the end of his performance, a well-to-do man who was in the audience approached him.
"You are a prodigy," he told the violinist. "A genius! I would give anything to be able to play like you."

"Me, a prodigy? A genius," the violinist responded, confusion and a bit of disgust in his voice. "You would give anything to play like me, would you? I practice 16 hours every day! I have done so for over a decade."

The other man's face showed his amazement. Perhaps he wouldn't give anything to play like this man.




I wish to share one more story to illustrate the point I hope to make.

I come from a large family, and love every member very much. All have gone on to successful careers, or are still being educated in order to pursue them. One brother graduated as an accountant and secured a job at a major accounting firm soon after graduating. He and his wife and new baby moved out to San Jose, California and began their adventure there. However, the job was not what he had anticipated.

The hours were long, the work was tedious, and he was not happy. He left for work before his daughter was awake and got home after she had gone to bed. He was missing out on the most important parts of life.

So he started waking up at 5 AM.
He had a friend at LinkedIn, and had the dream of applying for a job as a web developer.
He woke up early and studied programming. He had taught himself to program at a low-paying, undergraduate job, but knew he would need more than that.
He got the job.

What is he doing now?

He is, once again, waking up at 5 AM, this time to write a book on programming.
I recently asked him, "must victory always come at such a price?"
His response:
"There is no shortcut to a dream."

Another friend at his accounting firm said, "man, I wish I had the skills you do so I didn't have to work here anymore."
It is more than skills, I think my brother would agree. In fact, his book is based on the concept that anyone can learn how to program.
The violinist might say that anyone can learn to play the violin.
Paul McCartney might tell you that anyone can be a successful musician.

But...
They need to work.
They need to be willing to avoid hitting the snooze button at 5 AM.

As President Thomas S. Monson said, leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,
"Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't."