Seeing the premier of Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots in Chicago
Last week I wrote about the important business tips I learned from Cyndi Lauper. She’s so talented (and unusual-only her true fans will get that joke) so its hard for me to image she ever doubts herself. My logical brain knows that everyone from Mother Teresa to me has their doubts about purpose and abilities but I’m always surprised when I hear people admit it. Turns out even Cyndi Freaking Lauper has doubts. Amazing.
She shared that she’d been asked to do a tour of her classics for years but didn’t want to just put on an “oldies” concert. She needed to know she was more than the woman who made Girls Just Wanna Have Fun a famous hit so she took a chance a wrote the musical Kinky Boots with Harvey Fierestein (for which she won the 2013 Tony Award for Best Score). It was then she knew that she could return to the music of the past and tour. What this story continually reminds me of is the importance of doing things that validate our own creativity and belief in ourselves.
We all have doubt, especially as we make changes in our careers. We all feel stuck, especially when we’ve been doing the same thing for 30 years. We all worry about being accepted, especially when we try something new. We all fear failure, especially in front of people we trust. Not every chance we take will work out. There will be chances that don’t work at all or work out just a little bit but each one of those points us further down the path to finding our success and sometimes that success comes from returning to your roots and doing what you love the most. So the next time you feel stuck or insecure take a risk, no matter how big or small, and use the lessons to remind yourself that you really are great at what you do.
