Let’s be honest. The world doesn’t always welcome us. Sometimes, it’s up to us to find our own way to welcome. I grew up in the heart of the ghetto during the Depression.
Not the greatest welcome.
But still I had choices. And I started to make some good ones. After all, there may have been gangsters living around me but mostly, there were good people. One was my father. Every day, he would say to me, “Once a task has just begun, never leave ’til it’s done. Be the labor great or small, do it well or not at all.” I started to listen.
I came to learn that the important thing is to get moving in a direction. You cannot wait until everything’s perfect. Four guys that sound half-bad only need to give twenty-five percent to be one hundred percent when they play together. Do the math. It works.
The message from all this is when we don’t get the welcome we feel we deserve, it’s important to not sit back and wait for it. It likely will never come. You’ve got to look for it in other ways and other places. Just keep looking until you find a door of welcoming that’s opening up. You may have to do some pushing to get it to open all the way.
Then walk on through.
Quincy Jones is an American record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, television producer, and trumpeter. www.quincyjones.com
