Well it turns out he can! A lot of people look at his success and say in awe or in jealousy “he got such a big break” or “he was destined to be successful” or “he was in the right place at the right time”.
In reality, he was a total failure for most of his life. He had finished his recipe in 1940 and did not franchise it until 12 years later! That is because he kept being turned down. He was supposedly turned down over 1000 times before he finally succeeded. And that is not even counting all of the other things he had failed at prior to that.
Now you might be thinking “yeah but he had to have been young right?” Wrong! He was in his mid 60’s. While everyone else was retired he had successfully begun selling his chicken and he was very successful in his final years. What can you learn from this?
1) Failure is part of the path to success. Playing guitar is no different.
If you have tried playing guitar but did not make very much progress after a certain amount of time, remember this is part of the path! Failing or not making progress is how you discover what does not work. And discovering what doesn’t work is how you find out what does work! Of course if you work with an expert guitar teacher who has done this already you can reach your guitar playing goals much quicker!
2) Age does not matter at all. You can still play the guitar.
Age does not determine if you can try to succeed or not, remember Colonel Sanders did not succeed until he was in his 60’s. So if you ever hear yourself saying “I am too old to play guitar” remember that it is never too late as long as you are breathing. So if you want to play guitar but you are not a teenager, start anyway!
3) Perseverance will get you to where you want to be.
Most people would have given up way before 1000 failures, but not Colonel Sanders. Success goes like this: You try and you fail, you try again and you fail again and again and again and then you try again and again and again until you succeed. This is how success works, so if you don’t make progress playing guitar do not give up! If you do then that’s how you fail.
4) Success is a decision. Becoming a great guitar player and musician is also a decision.
Most guitarists you look up to were not born with something you do not have and will never have. No one is born with the skills they have as a musician. They didn’t have those skills because they had big hands or long fingers, or because they have small hands and short fingers, or because of anything else. They developed those skills because they chose to. Colonel Sanders succeeded because he made the decision to. If you choose to be a great guitarist and back that choice up with action you will get there.
5) And lastly, the frustration is worth going through.
You might be thinking “oh man 12 years is a long time, being frustrated for that long seems daunting”. Not really. How is it any worse than not being able to play guitar at all in that time? The time is going by anyway whether you do anything or not so you may as well try. Also the frustration is always the worst in the beginning. Going from beginner to intermediate is way more frustrating than going from intermediate to advanced. Because you can do more fun things at intermediate level and as you make more progress, you will be able to overcome your challenges much faster.
Also who says it has to take 12 years? If you have a well trained guitar instructor it can happen in half of that time or even a quarter of that time! The point is, you can absolutely play the guitar the way you want to, the question is, will you?
About the author: Jake Willmot is well driven guitar teacher located in Exmouth. If you are looking for a (guitar teacher in Devon, Exmouth) then Jake Willmot is your guy!
(585) 298-6511