Tom Flores - Commitment

Ralph Ellison

"It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow."

— Ralph Ellison

American Novelist

1914 - 1994

Commentary
Change and growth require commitment.  People dream of changing their lives but usually they lack the deep commitment to do so.  Change takes hard work and follow through.  Nothing changes overnight.  

Many in the American society expect instant change.  Not happy with your body weight, take a pill or have surgery.  Not happy with your body, have plastic surgery.  Change takes commitment and patience.  It is better to lose weight slowly than quickly.  

Becoming a writer doesn't happen overnight.  It takes years.  Actors often are labeled an overnight success — a success which took ten or fifteen years.  Harrison Ford, the actor, spent 15 years in Hollywood before he got the break in Star Wars that made him famous.  Paulo Coehlo spent 15 years waiting for his best selling book, The Alchemist, to become a hit in the United States.  Vincent Van Gogh sold only one painting in his lifetime and died broke.  Creative expression is a lifetime commitment.  Don't give up.

Biography
Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap.  His father was a small business owner and construction foreman who died when Ralph was three. In his youth Ellison took radios apart and rebuilt them.  As an adult he constructed and customized elaborate hi-fi stero systems.

Ellison entered the Tuskegee Institute on a scholarship to  study music and studied under piano teacher Hazel Harrison.  While studying music, he also began to read the classics.  His reading of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot awakened in him the desire to write.  He learned later in life that his father wanted him to become a poet.

After his junior year, Ellison moved to New York to study sculpture and photography.  There he met Richard Wright who encouraged him to write fiction.  Between 1937 and 1944, Ellison published short stories, articles and book reviews in various magazines.  His first novel, Invisible Man, was published in 1952 and won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1953.

For most of his life, Ellison was a college professor and wrote and published essays.  He worked the rest of his life on his second novel and wrote over 2,000 pages.  The novel was published under the title, Juneteenth, after his death.

Video
Here is a short discussion of the impact of Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man.

Abraham Lincoln

"I do the very best I know how — the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing it until the end."

— Abraham Lincoln

American President

1809 - 1865

All we can hope to do is our very best.  We can do no more.  We will not be able to please everyone so we need to please ourselves.   Don't compare yourself to others.  They are not you.  You are unique.  There is not another person on this planet with the exact same talents and skills.  You are not in competition with others.  You are only in competition with yourself.  Do the very best that you can do and keep on doing it even when others don't appreciate it.

James Salter

"I decided to write or perish.  It was like starting life from scratch."

— James Salter

American Novelist

1925 -

Watch this video about James Salter.  How committed are you to your art?  What are you willing to sacrifice?  What are you willing to do?  What are you going to create this week?

Ralph Ellison

"It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow."

— Ralph Ellison

American Novelist

1914 - 1994

Change and growth require commitment.  People dream of changing their lives but usually they lack the deep commitment to do so.  Change takes hard work and follow through.  Nothing changes overnight.  Many in the American society expect instant change.  Not happy with your body weight, take a pill or have surgery.  Not happy with your body, have plastic surgery.  Change takes commitment and patience.  It is better to lose weight slowly than quickly.  Becoming a writer doesn't happen overnight.  It takes years.  Actors often are labeled an overnight success — a success which took ten or fifteen years.  Harrison Ford, the actor, spent 15 years in Hollywood before he got the break in Star Wars that made him famous.  Creative expression is a lifetime commitment.  Don't give up.

Jane Goodall

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

— Jane Goodall

British Primatologist/Anthropologist/Author

World's Foremost Expert on Chimpanzees

1934 - 

Are you making a difference?  Are you leaving your small corner of the world a better place than when you found it?  More than 25 years ago, I was fired from a job and immediately put my house up for sale because I knew I would have to move in order to find another job in my field.  A couple weeks later, my wife and I stopped at a nursery and purchased a cherry tree that we planted in the backyard.  Now, we were never going to see this tree grow, but we did it anyway.  I have strong belief that you need to leave a place better than you found it.  You need to give back and that is what I was doing.  On a couple of occasions, I had a chance to revisit this house and I saw that the tree had grown into a beautiful tree. 

In the moments before I speak, I motivate myself by repeating over and over to myself:  "I will touch the life of at least one person.  I will make a difference in the life of one person."  I know I won't touch everyone, but if I am able to motivate one person to be better than he is, then I know I have done my job.  As writers and artists we have the same opportunity to make a difference in people's lives.

I had an opportunity to hear Jane Goodall speak about her work about ten years ago.  My wife, daughter and I drove three hours to hear her speak.  Then we stood in a long line so she could sign a book for my daughter.  We did not arrive home until about 2 am.  Jane Goodall was an inspiration for my daughter.  She made a difference in my daughter's life.  

How are you touching the lives of the people who view your paintings or read your books?  Are you leaving your corner of the world better than you found it?

Watch this video of Jane Goodall and her research.

Jane Rule

"It's not the length but the quality of life that matters to me.  It has always been important to me to write one sentence at a time, to live every day as if it were my last and judge it in those terms, often badly, not because it lacked grand gesture or grand passion but because it failed in the daily virtues of self-discipline, kindness and laughter."

— Jane Rule

1931 - 2006

Canadian Writer

Are you focused on the big picture or do you live each day as if it was your last?  The challenge is to balance both.  You need the big picture of where you are going, but you need to live as if each day is your last.  And by that I don't mean spending all day with family and doing nothing.  Living each day as your last has to do with your passion, purpose, desire, priorities and commitment.  Are you focused on the right priorities?  Are you focused on the passion in your life?  Are you committed to doing your best each and every day.  Are you focused on the virtues of self-discipline, kindness and laughter?

Lisa Alther

"It had been fourteen years and I hadn't had anything published.  I had 250 rejection slips.  I got my first novel published and it was called Kinflicks.  It turned out to be a best seller."

— Lisa Alther

American Novelist

1944 -

The creative arts are not for the weak of will.  The creative arts require commitment, persistence and self-discipline in the face of cold-hearted rejection.  Do you have the self-discipline to stay focused when the world is screaming that you should quit and find a normal line of work?  Do you have the strength to keep going when you have received 250 rejection letters?  How long are you willing to wait for success?  Two years?  Five years?  Ten?  Twenty?

Listen to Lisa talk about the gravel road that eventually led to her success.

David McNally

"The circumstances of our lives have as much power as we choose to give them."

— David McNally

American Speaker/Author

The circumstances that we find ourselves in — being poor or rich, educated or high school dropout, being married or single, being published or not — only have power to influence how we feel if we choose to give them that power.  We did not have control over the fact that we were born into a family that was poor, but we do have a choice about how we will respond to our circumstances.  We have no control over how others respond to our painting or writing, but we do have a choice about how much influence the opinions of others have on us.

I had an opportunity to hire David McNally to speak several years ago.  I was impressed with his story about making a documentary film about Terry Fox, a young Canadian who ran 3/5 of the way across Canada and raised 24 million dollars for cancer.  McNally had no experience making a film but was inspired to tell Terry's story of purpose.

At the age of eighteen, Terry Fox was diagnosed with cancer and had his leg amputated.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity, he decided to find some purpose in what had happened to him.  His goal was to run across Canada and raise a million dollars for cancer research.  He made it 3/5 of the way before he became too sick and had to stop.  He died a short time later.  McNally movingly tells Terry's story in the film, The Power of Purpose.

The circumstances that we find ourselves in — being sick or healthy, employed or without a job, homeless or with a roof over our heads — only have the power to influence how we feel if we choose to give them that power.

Catherine Lanigan

"I learned that writers make something out of nothing.  We make dreams into reality.  That's our nature, our mission.  We were born to it.  I will never give up my dream again.  Never." 

— Catherine Lanigan

American Writer

1947 - 

Catherine Lanigan gave up on her dream of writing while in college because a college professor told her she had no talent.  Years later after encouragement from a journalist, she returned to writing. 

We all have people who try to destroy our dreams and it takes courage to stand up to them.  If you are a beginning artist, writer, actor or singer, don't ask if you have talent.  No one can judge that but you.  Ask if you have the passion and persistence to keep creating even when others discourage you.  Ask if you have the heart and the courage to stand up for what you believe in.

Writers and artists make something from nothing.  They take a blank canvas and fill it with color.  They take a blank sheet of paper and fill it with story.  Believe in your dream.  Believe in yourself.  Believe in your creative gift.

Kurt Vonnegut

"The practice of art isn't to make a living.  It's to make your soul grow."

— Kurt Vonnegut

American Novelist

1922 - 2007

Many of us dream of making a living from our art.  We want to spend a hundred percent of our time on our art.  Actually very few artists, musicians and writers make a living from their work.  Most have to take on jobs to support their creative habit or starve.  If the reason we write or paint is to make money, then we should give it up and go find a job in business.  Making art is not about money.  Making art is about personal growth and development — about the journey of the soul.  Money, if it comes, is the gravy.

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite novelists.  His Cat's Cradle is in my all time list of favorite novels.  I first read him in college and last in 2009 when I read Armagedd0n in Retrospect.

Here is a visual tribute to Kurt Vonnegut.

Ella Winter

"Choose well: your choice is brief and yet endless."

— Ella Winter

Australian Journalist, Author 
1898 - 1980

I believe everything we do in life is a choice and that we need to take responsibility for our actions and not blame others.  The challenge is to make the right choices or at least to make choices.  When I graduated from college I was afraid to choose a direction to my life.  I didn't know what I wanted to do.  If I went down the wrong path it would be a disaster.  What I have learned is that the choices I made have led me where I need to be.  The challenge is to choose.  If you keep choosing you will eventually end up where you are supposed to be.  If you don't choose and let life happen, you may end up where you don't want to be.

Many people blame others for the circumstances in which they find themselves.  They are what I call "IF ONLY THINKERS."  They preface everything with the phrase: if only.  If only I had more money.  If only I had a college education.  If only my boss liked me.  If only I had better parents.  If only....If only....If only....

Usually we only have a short time to make a decision before the door closes and the opportunity passes.  Sometimes the opportunity will come around again and other times it won't.  I once had an opportunity to work for a trade magazine but I turned it down because I was happy with the job I had.  And the opportunity to work for a trade journal never came around again.  I sent out resumes, but noone responded.  I don't know how my life would have been different if I had accepted the position, but I have no regrets.  I am satisfied with the life I have lived.

The choices we make often send us in directions we never imagined.  New opportunities arise for us to seize.  Each choice we make leads us closer to where we are supposed to be.  We make a life by making choices.  What choices are you making today that will open up new doors for you tomorrow?

Charles Baudelaire

"Any healthy man can go without food for two days — but not poetry."

— Charles Baudelaire

French Poet

1821 - 1867

Obviously, Baudelaire was passionate about poetry.  Are you passionate about your creative work?  Are you able to live without producing a poem, a play or a painting?  While my goal is to write every day, there are some days I don't have the time.  If I don't write for several days, I can feel my need to write growing within my spirit.  I have to sit down and put pen to paper.

There are three levels of involvement that people have with their art.  These levels are best illustrated by the three key players in breakfast.  The first level is illustrated by the farmer.  He is hungry and wants something to eat.  He is interested in the breakfast.  The hen illustrates the second level.  She is committed to the breakfast.  She is willing to share her eggs with the farmer.  The pig illustrates the third level.  He is passionate about the breakfast because he is willing to put his bacon on the line.  Are you just interested in your art much like the farmer?  Or are you committed to your art like the hen?  Or are you passionate about your art like the pig?  Are you willing to put your bacon on line for your art?

Beatrice Wood

Photo by
William Gray Harris

"Very few people know how to work.  Inspiration, everyone has inspiration, that's just hot air."

— Beatrice Wood

American Potter, Artist

1893 - 1998

I have often heard beginning writers say that they only write when they are inspired.  Unfortunately, if they wait until they are inspired, their output will be very small.  Most experienced artists and writers know they must work whether they are inspired or not.  Often when we work the inspiration will arrive on its own time and when we least expect it.  

Success comes from work.  Work when you are sad.  Work when you are happy.  Work when you don't feel like it.  Work when you want to go to a movie.  Our minds are very good at finding excuses for not working.  "I have to do the dishes."  "I have to wash the clothes."  And the list goes on.  Work takes discipline and will power.  

See writing and painting as a job that you need to show up to every day.  Since you have no boss but yourself, you have to hold yourself accountable.  Schedule your hours when you are most creative and stick to your schedule.  Maybe you write between 5 am and 6 am.  Or if you have the luxury, schedule your work hours from 8 am to 5 pm with an hour off for lunch.  Some writers write in the morning and do their research and marketing in the afternoon.  You have to find the schedule that best fits your temperament.

Sydney Smith

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals."

— Sydney Smith

English Writer, Anglican Clergy

1771 -1845

The reason many creative leaders don't reach their goals is that they are focused on the wrong thing.  People focus on all the reasons their feel they can't achieve their goals.  They need to focus instead on their goals. 

If you are focused on your goals, you will see over the obstacles, under the obstacles, around the obstacles and through the obstacles.  If you are focused on the obstacles, you will only see the obstacles and you will not achieve your goals.

What are your goals?  What are you focused on?  The obstacles?  Or the GOALS?  Banish the obstacles from your mind.  Focus on your goals.  Achieve your dreams.

Martin Luther King Jr.

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, 'Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'"

— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

American Civil Rights Leader/Preacher/Author

1929 - 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

One of those games we play is:  "Where were you when . . ."  On April 4, 1968, I was a nineteen year old college student at Goshen College in Indiana.  Two months earlier I had the privilege of marching with Dr. King at a Vietnam War protest march in Washington D.C. The murder of Dr. King on my birthday in 1968 impacted me both emotionally and spiritually.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

For the past twenty years I have been sharing this quote by Dr. King in my speeches on leadership.  I believe that work is spiritual in nature.  The work we do helps to cleanse our souls and free our spirits.  Many people see work as a negative condition.  They hate Mondays and grumble about having to go to work.  Many people wish they did not have to work.  But if you have ever lost a job and sat idle for a few months, you appreciate the value of work in your life.

As creative leaders we have a special opportunity to share the fruit of our labor with others. Most of my life I have dreamed of being able to give up my bill-paying job and write full time.  Fortunately, this never happened.  I think I am a better person for having the discipline to get up an hour earlier than everyone and writing before going to work.  Sometimes what we wish for is not in our best interests.  The bill-paying work and the creative work are both important and both have helped to make me a better person.

Be proud of the work you do.  Celebrate the work you do.  Be happy with the gifts you have been given.

Theodore H. White

"To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can have."

— Theodore H. White

American Journalist/Writer

1915 - 1986

As artists and creative leaders, we often have to stand alone against the thinking of family and friends.  This is very difficult to do and often we will be criticized for what we think and the way we behave.  This happened to me early in my life.  I grew up in the Mennonite church in central Illinois.  When I was a sophomore in high school, I committed myself to being a minister.  By the time I was a senior, I was no longer a believer in the faith of my forefathers.  This admission was very difficult for both my mother and father to hear.  

Do you stand up for what you believe even though the people around you disagree with you?  Did you become an artist despite the wishes of your parents?  Many parents prefer their children become doctors and lawyers.  It takes a strong-willed individual to become a writer or a painter in the face of parental opposition.  As Theodore White says, each of you are heroes.  Celebrate and appreciate your strength and individuality.

Zig Ziglar

"Most people who fail in their dreams fail not from lack of ability but from lack of commitment."

— Zig Ziglar

American Speaker/Author

1926 -

We all have dreams, things that we want to accomplish in our lives, but many of us give up too soon.  We don't have the commitment to achieve what we dream of achieving.  To be an artist in a world where you have to have a 9 - 5 job in order to live requires commitment.  You have to get up earlier than everyone else or go to bed later than everyone else in your family.  You have to steal minutes wherever you can to write, to draw, to paint, to dance.  Sometimes we have to create in isolation, without contact with other creative souls.  We have to force ourselves to write even when our body and mind is finding ways to procrastinate.  Many of us don't have people in our lives encouraging us to create.  In fact, we may have people telling us to get a real job.  We have to be our own coach and cheerleader.  We have to be willing to do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do?  Have you the commitment to be a creative leader?