A few weeks ago I had a three hour layover in one of the
greatest cities in the country, Nashville, TN. So I spent this time in the
World Famous Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge (airport edition). As I sat there, the
place was busting at the seams. The singer on stage was playing and singing old country
classics. This packed restaurant became a classic country choir and it was
amazingly fun. If I had to have a layover, I couldn't have planned it any
better. Three hours in Music City USA and I felt the old fires burning deep
inside me. Fires that can only be fueled by the atmosphere of Nashville, even
if I only made it as far as the airport.
This is what makes this town such a unique place. On every
corner you see and hear people, young and old, living out their dream of making
it. Keep in mind their idea of “making it” may just be playing music for a
living whether they’re heard on the radio or not. Dream chasing just oozes from
the veins here. One cannot walk into a bar in the lower Broadway area and not
hear music playing. It happens at all hours, different bands and
singers switching shifts throughout the day just like the wait staff. From all
over the country, each one came to this town just to play music in hopes of
being discovered or bumping into someone already on the radio. Nashville, TN the place where people come to
chase their dreams. They may drive beat up trucks or arrive on a bus but they come,
their dreams are what puts the breath in their lungs, so they come.
People all over America have dreams. They dream of a nice
home with the perfect family. They dream of winning the lottery. They dream of
their name in lights or on playbills. It isn't any accident the term “American
Dream” was coined. We are dreamers. I have them, you have them and those singers
in Nashville have them. However, there is more to it than just having dream.
It’s what sets you apart from the dreamers to the doers that makes the
difference. Actually, it’s the determination to go from dreamer to doer that
makes one successful.
Far too many people are content to dream. Dreams
help us sleep. Dreams give us something to talk about. But if dreaming is all
we do then the streets of Nashville would grow quiet and stages across the
country would be empty. It’s the drive, the determination that turns dreams into
music. It transforms dreams into reality. It isn't just in the entertainment
world, it’s in every realm, where determined dreamers find success, which isn't
always fame and fortune, but success nonetheless.
The difference between the Dreamers and the Doers is The
Dreamers dream then sleep and the Doers dream then they do. Which one will you
be, a slumbering Dreamer or a successful Doer?