Jon McLaughlin

Posted by Parke Ladd on Jan 10, 2009 in Business As Usual, Featured {Article} | 1 comment

Do you believe that persistence pays off?  

If you genuinely believe in a concept or a new way of doing something or a business venture or a song, do you also believe that if you are not immediately successful you will be eventually?  I believe persistence pays off.  I believe that taking advantage of positive, goal-guided opportunities is worth it both in the short-term and the long-term.  I believe that success, authentic success, is achieved drip-by-drip until eventually your container flows over.  What do you believe?  Do you think success should be immediate?  Do think it should require very little effort or sacrifice?

Jon McLaughlin is a musical artist.  He has a raspy, bluesy type of voice, and he plays the piano.  He’s from Anderson, Indiana, and last year he released an album entitled Indiana.  The album did alright.  Sales were nothing spectacular, but Jon didn’t give up.  He persisted.  He believed in his music.  He believed that he had something to offer, something that people needed.  He pursued opportunities, no matter how unimportant or even silly they initially seemed, in order to continue his path towards fulfilling his goals and dreams.  So, he sang a song for a Disney movie called Enchanted (kind of silly).  Nobody really watched it, yet his song got recognized.  Because he did that one song for Disney he was asked to be on the 80th anniversary of the Grammy awards show.  Big Time.  Drips were accumulating.  After that one appearance his Indiana album sales sky-rocketed.  Oh, excuse me.  I should have said that after performing thousands of times on hundreds of different stages all across the state of Indiana, his album sales sky-rocketed.  So called small opportunities lead to bigger and bigger ones which eventually lead to huge success.  After the Grammy’s his sales increased 1,514% on Amazon.  Overnight.  

Success comes to those who are willing to persist and adapt to the changing needs and desires of those directly around them.  Be a visionary.  See the opportunity in every situation.  By the way, check out Jon.  He’s a Hoosier like me so I hope that you enjoy his music or at least learn from his story.