“It ain’t how you say it. It’s havin’ something to say.”

Most people are boring.

We live in an age of abundance and choice, yet people keep choosing the same paths.

Today, you can drop out of high school, self-educate, and become a billionaire someday. It’s not likely, but it’s not impossible. That’s not something many people in history have been privileged enough to say.

The information to do great things and live an interesting life is all out there, so why is everyone so boring?

It’s because people are more interested in how they do/say things vs. the value of what they’re doing or saying.

People value:

• School over education

• Career prestige over how passionate they are about a career

• How people look over how they act

Most people don’t realize that none of these things are mutually exclusive. You can go to a great school and get a great education, but you can also not go to school and get a great education. Likewise, some of the ugliest souls you meet are housed in beautiful shells.

It’s the substance of what you do or say that determines your outcome.

In baseball, there’s a popular saying:

If you’re good enough, college and professional scouts will find you wherever you play.

You don’t need to be on a fancy travel ball team or a prestigious high school to be noticed — you just need to be a good player. And there are plenty of stories to back this idea up.

Matt Bush was a 1st round draft pick in the 2004 MLB Draft, but after just a few seasons, his career ended because of a DUI-related arrest.

After 3 years of jail and recovery, where did Bush showcase his talent for scouts?

In a Golden Corral parking lot, still sporting his ankle monitor as he let 98mph fastballs fly in front of scouts that came there to see him.

That isn’t a romantic picture, but teams and businesses don’t care how things look. They care about skill and results. And Bush showed enough skill to convince the Texas Rangers to sign him based on that parking lot showcase.

Bush’s triumph is an extreme one, but it follows a clear rule:

Substance over Form

In a recent Instagram post, the singer Charley Crockett wrote a beautiful piece on authenticity and individuality.

If you’re not familiar with Charley’s story, here’s a primer: He left high school at 17 to travel around the country with no other goal than to play his music. He spent nearly a decade broke, unsuccessful, and lost.

He was the definition of self-taught:

"I taught myself how to play and started to write songs immediately, without any chord knowledge or anything. I didn't know what key I was in for 12 years, but my ear was really good, and I could play in any key and any chord. I just didn't know what it was."

It seems that Charley had only a few goals as his journey progressed: survive, become a better artist, and gather experiences that would make his skill worthwhile.

Charley Crockett wasn’t an overnight success. He didn’t graduate from Berklee’s School of Music and he didn’t come up with any famous music connections.

So how did Charley eventually get on the radar of music labels and agents?

Having something to say.

And like Matt Bush, Crockett was good enough to attract the industry’s attention not because he sought it, but because he was good enough.

“I myself never really considered genre or album sales charts until I found myself with an agent and a distributor,” Charley explained, “And I wasn’t knocking on their doors. They came looking for me.” (emphasis mine)

Whether it’s music, sports, or anything you’re looking to master, there’s only one rule: be really good at what you do.

Success follows talent. It may not always happen at the pace you’d like it to or at the scale you had hoped for, but it will happen.

I’ll wrap this up by borrowing Charley’s words once more:

“It ain’t how you say it. It’s havin’ something to say.”

I rushed through Matt Bush’s comeback story a bit to avoid making this all about him, but if you want to read more about it, here’s a great post on it. It’s an awesome comeback story, and well worth the read if you’ve never heard of him.

Charley Crockett is one of my favorite artists. He’s as prolific and authentic as they come. You get the sense that he’s not in it just for the money, and that’s a rare sentiment these days. Check him out if you like Country/Western music, and here’s a link to the post I mentioned. Well worth the 1-2 minute read.

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