“Cash In” Moments

Our lives are measured in minutes. The minutes that matter, and then all the other minutes. I call the minutes that matter, the “Cash In” minutes.

The “Cash In” minutes are those in which something wonderful happens: your special friend says, “Yes;” your report card is your best one ever; you’ve been hired for your dream job!

How do we maximize our “Cash In” minutes? I’ll answer that with a classic joke.

A man carrying a violin case was rushing through Times Square.  A stranger stopped him and asked, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

The violinist shook his head, and said, “Practice, practice, practice.”

I am the son of a man whose profession was playing the French Horn in orchestras that created the soundtrack for major motion pictures. I believe he played in the orchestra that recorded the soundtrack for “The Sound of Music,” and also for “Around the World in Eighty Days.” I imagine both of those experiences were filled with “Cash-In” minutes.

But dad practiced on his French Horn for two or three hours daily.  Musicians at that time, were only permitted by the Musician’s Union to work a maximum of ten hours a week. So there were a lot more practice hours than “Cash-In” hours for my dad.

But isn’t that the way the world works?   Every day we’re mostly preparing for the “Big Show.”  (To a baseball player that would be the World Series, to a poet, winning the Pulitzer, and to an entrepreneur, a successful company launch.) While “Cash-In” moments might be different for each of us, we all have to put in enough practice time to give ourselves the best chance at achieving those moments.

Today I’m writing my blog. Tomorrow you’ll be reading it.

Cash In moments for us both.

Thanks.

Alan