Show Up: 90% Perspiration, 10% Inspiration
There is a piece of advice I have carried with me since my college days: “Success is 90% perspiration and 10% inspiration.”
As a piano teacher, a musician, and a mother, I have come to understand just how true those words are. Whether we are talking about music, academics, sports, a career, or simply becoming the person we want to be, there are very few shortcuts to excellence.
I originally wrote these words to my daughter, Renee, as she was pursuing her own musical goals. At the time, I was probably giving her what she would affectionately describe as some of my “piano tiger mom” advice. But the older I get, the more I realize that this advice isn’t really about piano at all.
It is about showing up.
The 90% We Can Control
If you have ever watched a great musician perform, you might think that what you are seeing is effortless. The performer walks onto the stage, sits at the piano, takes a breath, and begins to play. The music flows. The fingers seem to move effortlessly. The audience hears a beautiful performance.
What the audience doesn’t see is everything that happened before those few minutes on stage.
They don’t see the early mornings.
They don’t see the hours of practice.
They don’t see the same passage being played over and over again until it finally sounds the way it should.
They don’t see the mistakes, the frustration, the sore fingers, the technical exercises, the lessons, the corrections, and all the moments when the musician has to say, “Okay, let me try that again.”
That is the 90%—the perspiration.
And the wonderful thing about the 90% is that we have control over it.
We can choose to practice.
We can choose to prepare.
We can choose to listen to our teachers.
We can choose to work on the things we aren’t good at instead of only doing the things that come easily.
We can choose to get up an hour earlier, stay a little later, repeat the difficult passage one more time, or listen to the recording again.
None of this is particularly glamorous.
Nobody gives you a standing ovation for practicing scales in your bedroom.
But that is where progress happens.
The 10% We Can’t Control
Then there is the other 10%.
The inspiration.
The luck.
The things that are simply outside our control.
In a competition, maybe it is the number you draw for your performance order. Maybe the judges happen to connect with your interpretation. Maybe you are having an unusually good day. Sometimes even the smallest things can affect a performance.
You might walk into the room and discover that the piano feels completely different from the one you practiced on.
Someone might cough.
A cell phone might ring.
Someone might drop something.
Or, as I once jokingly told my daughter, someone could practically perform the Ice Bucket Challenge right in the middle of your piece!
You cannot control those things.
What you can control is how prepared you are when they happen. And that preparation makes all the difference.
When you have practiced enough, your fingers have a memory of what they are supposed to do. Your mind has a roadmap. You have built a foundation strong enough to carry you through the unexpected. That is why we practice.
Not because we can guarantee that nothing will go wrong, but because we want to be ready when something does.
When Things Don’t Go as Planned
Of course, sometimes preparation isn’t enough to guarantee the outcome we want. We can work incredibly hard and still lose the competition. We can prepare for an audition and not get the part. We can give something our absolute best and still watch someone else receive the opportunity.
And that can hurt.
But this is where another important lesson comes in:
Giving up is not a choice.
We see it all the time in athletes and artists. Someone falls. They get up, shake the dust off, and keep going. The fall isn’t the most important part of the story. What matters is what happens next.
Do you stay down?
Or do you get back up?
Success isn’t always about winning. Sometimes success is simply having the courage to try again.
The Power of Showing Up
Over the years, I have learned that talent is important, but consistency is often even more important.
You don’t have to feel motivated every day.
You don’t have to feel inspired every day.
You don’t even have to feel confident every day.
But you do have to show up.
Show up prepared.
Show up on time.
Show up when you’re excited.
Show up when you’re tired.
Show up when you feel like you’re making tremendous progress.
And especially show up when you feel like you’re getting nowhere.
Do the drills.
Do the work.
Listen.
Listen carefully.
Listen to your teachers.
Listen to people who have walked the path before you.
And listen to yourself.
Keep learning. Keep improving. Keep going.
Then, after you have done everything within your power, leave a little room for the 10%.
Leave room for inspiration.
Leave room for luck.
Leave room for a little bit of fairy dust.
Because sometimes, when preparation meets opportunity, something magical happens.
And Maybe That’s the Real Lesson
Looking back at the advice I gave my daughter, I realize that what I was really trying to tell her was much bigger than how to prepare for a piano competition. I was trying to tell her how to approach life.
There will always be things we cannot control.
There will be unexpected obstacles, disappointing outcomes, unfair circumstances, and days when nothing seems to go according to plan.
But we can always control whether we show up. We can control our effort. We can control our attitude. We can control whether we keep learning.
And we can control whether we get back up after we fall.
So, if I could offer one piece of advice to any student, parent, musician, or person working toward a dream, it would be this:
Show up.
Do the work.
Be prepared.
Be patient with yourself.
And when you’ve done everything you can, trust that preparation will meet opportunity when the time is right.
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