Take the time... Bill knows - Posted on 2012-07-06 by Ryan Keith

I just watched a documentary on Bill Withers, writer of soul classic "Ain't No Sunshine". The film was called 'Still Bill'. It was in intimate look at Bill's life, now almost 30 years after his last album release. Watching this film made me think Bill is a true humble man. Not only that, but he had some pretty profound things that he had to say about life and working in the music industry.

Bill grew up with a stuttering problem that he was able to overcome in his 20's, and film has a pretty moving scene of him meeting with a group of children facing the same this issue. At the age of 32, while worked as mechanic on aircrafts, he decided to shop his talent around the record industry in L.A. He was met with skeptics and scoffers that said he was too old to make it as an artist. Despite the disbelievers, he knew what he wanted to do a overcame the odds once again.

One of the most profound things I took away from this film, was Bill's advice to kids. He said, "It's okay to head out for 'wonderful', but on your way to 'wonderful' you're going to have to pass through 'alright', and when you get to 'alright', take a good look around and get used to it, because that may be as far as you're going to go."

With today's movies and smoke n' mirrors production, it gives artist the impression that people just magically become great successes. When the truth is it take hard work, perseverance, and most of all, a lot of mediocre performances. So don't compare yourself to other people's successes, without taking into account there list of not-so-successful efforts and work to be better. The only reason I haven't built a rocket ship, is because I haven't taken the time. Anything we haven't done, is only because we haven't taken the time to do it! (yet...)