“M2 Inspired” is the new name for my weekly Monday Morning Inspirational series of messages designed to give your Monday a jump start to a great week. Whether it be via the spoken or written word, the hope is for you to have a surge of energy and mindset shift (if needed) for a productive week personally and/or professionally.
On occasion, I will meet people that will touch my heart and move my Spirit.
And in that same moment, I know I will never be the same.
That’s what happened when I met Billy McLaughlin last week Tuesday.
I was visiting a local real estate office/brokerage near my home, showing up with the intention of learning more about the office, the agents and their culture/environment.
I arrived only to find a completely different experience. Billy was there and he was ready to play.
Ever since Billy was 13-years-old (now in his mid-life years, as he would say), his dream was to be a guitarist/musician. Music was in his blood and he stopped at nothing to convince his parents that they must/had-to get him a guitar and allow him to take guitar lessons.
After teaching himself his first few chords and song out of a library book (his parents’ idea to test his desire and commitment to this supposed “dream” he had), it was evident that Billy was not going to fail, not going to give up. He was committed. He was ready to take the journey in this life to becoming a musician that sold his own CD’s, traveled the world and was well known for his talent.
However, what he didn’t know, was that his dream would come true, but it wouldn’t come the way he had planned.
In 2001, after making billboard charts with his own songs and several years of success, he was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease, Focal Dystonia. He could no longer use his right hand. He could no longer play his own music.
Essentially, in that moment, his career was over. Everything he had worked toward, everything he had done since he was 13-years-old, seemingly disappeared over night.
What could he do now that his dream/career was over?
Have you been there? What would you do?
Maybe you had a job layoff recently and your career seemed to be over. Maybe you had a relationship end. Maybe you lost your house or are figuring out how to pay your mortgage. Maybe you lost your retirement. Maybe all of the above happened at once.
Billy almost gave up. He wanted to throw in the towel. Can’t say that I blame him. He had started to retrain himself to play with his left hand, something almost impossible to do. Almost like a right handed pitcher retraining himself to throw left handed. That doesn’t sound like an easy journey. That doesn’t happen often, if ever, successfully.
I won’t recount the whole story here (stay tuned for later M2 Inspired messages for that), but what happened would be a stroke of Divine Order.
At his lowest point, he grabbed lunch at a local asian establishment to lift his spirits. He opened a fortune cookie, shocked at the message that was there just for him.
“Failure only happens to those who quit too early”
Tears instantly filled my eyes. Billy’s message hit home. How many times have I wanted to give up. Throw in the towel. Especially lately, as a new mom. Or in the past few years since my mortgage company “failed”.
“Failure” as we humans perceive it, can be a painful thing and hard to shake or forget, especially at a physiological/emotional level.
To see his smiling face now, one wouldn’t know that Billy, as a single dad of two boys, spent several years retraining his body to play all his own music with his left hand. One wouldn’t know that he almost threw in the towel. One wouldn’t know that he felt like a failure when his career was, supposedly, “over”.
He now has gigs in India. He now has sold more CD’s than he ever did while playing with his right hand. He now has shared his story with thousands. And what a story it has been and continues to be.
And this is just the beginning.
I thanked Billy for his story and sharing his journey with me. For, we often forget about that transformational journey that gets us to our dreams - we only focus or hear about the destination, the wins, the final outcome.
Billy’s story is a great reminder to never give up, no matter what.
Here’s to your Monday, to your new week. Your new clean slate. May it be filled with everything you require to keep going on your own journey, one day at a time.