Road to Success

I like books written by successful people. I don't like biographies much, because they tend to be a list of facts with a bit of speculation thrown in. Autobiographies are much better because as a reader you get a better sense of the personality of the achiever. Renee Fleming is fascinating. Did you know she wasn't that good at the time of finishing her studies? Everyone turned her down, but she carried on, learning, studying, perfecting. Here's a few things I noticed:

• She sought out successful people - in person or by book and DVD and learnt from what they did.
• She turned setbacks into stepping stones - it's lucky the Met turned me down because then I could study with X.
• She asked for help - she had terrible stage fright at one point and she visited therapists, sports coaches, psychologists, other singers ... anyone and everything until she had an answer.
• She worked hard.

Good for her!

This week is application form week - there's three of them to complete for Bury College, but I will try to review another book tomorrow.