I hung up the phone in stunned silence.  After two days of not being able to reach the first girlfriend I'd ever had, I finally knew what was going on.  We had broken up.  No one wants to work in the middle of emotional trauma.  It's much worse if that work includes dancing and exploding with joy on-stage in front of new audiences on your first tour the night after your heart is broken. 

"Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.” said C.S. Lewis in The Horse and His Boy.  I knew what I had to do.  The lesson of so many Sunday mornings after a week of rejection and inner turmoil years before had taught me that the blues are the perfect time to release all the pent up passion of pain into a celebration of life and joy.  I danced my way through tears, shouted hope to eager ears.  People cried and thanked us for the show, and then they bought CDs and t-shirts.

Did I milk it?  Did I manipulate the audience into a financial transaction for my benefit?  No, but I refused to stop at vulnerability and pain.  I avoided letting my circumstances and feelings define my actions. 

Recently my travels found me sitting in a metal tube, flying through the air on my way to Nashville.  When I opened up Southwest Airlines' Spirit magazine, this paragraph jumped off the page...

“It might seem odd to be writing about celebrations when the nation’s economy is probably in the worst shape any of us can remember. I believe that celebrating our Employees and our Company is more important now than ever.”  -Gary Kelly, Southwest CEO

If you haven't noticed, Southwest Airlines has a history of doing things opposite to what other airlines do.  It's probably why they've recorded 36 consecutive, financially profitable years.  But this quarter they posted a loss of $20 million, their first loss in 72 quarters.  So why is it that Gary Kelly is talking about celebration?  Why does Southwest continue to resist the temptation to charge extra for baggage, changing reservations and every other “hidden fee”, as they say?

Reacting to the present without a long-term focus would ruin their reputation.  Their entire business model depends on being the fun, friendly way to fly, the choose-your-own-seat airline.  And if every other airline complains about the tough economy, charges extra for bags, reduces their amount of in-flight service, and processes passengers with a haggard look on their overworked faces, I'm choosing the guys who throw parties while getting me to my destination on-time for less.  I can't remember an unfriendly Southwest employee.

In case you think I'm just talking about the airline industry and rock n' roll performances, La-Z-Boy made a fortune during the Great Depression selling a newly invented, unnecessary chair in a small town that nobody went to.  How'd they do it?  They set up a circus tent and had “furniture shows” complete with acrobatic mice, ferris wheels, merry-go-rounds, leaping fish and free shrub and flower giveaways.  They turned their out of the way location into a cheap, tourist destination for a public desperate for entertainment they could afford.  When the people got there, they had a chance to sink into the comfort of an upholstered chair that whispered, “take a load off and let your problems melt away.”  People paid using any form of payment possible to get a La-Z-Boy, including guinea hens, coal, wheat and cows. 

Transcending the limitations of your circumstances will always be a compelling story.  If you need more proof, check out the Best Selling books of the 1930's.  Everyone of them, Cimarron,  The Good Earth, Anthony Adverse, Green Light, Gone With the Wind & The Yearling all deal with people who found a way to triumph over their circumstances.  Not even 1939's best selling, The Grapes of Wrath, with its misfortune stricken characters and plot, can end without Rose of Sharon nursing a dying man back to life, despite her horribly negative experience. 

We're wired for hope, yearning to believe that we can be something more, find some sort of meaning, even if, as happened in my case, pounding rejections have ripped our heart in two.  Decide what you're going to do.  Turn your own conviction and courage in the face of fear into a story that inspires others.  It will never seem pleasant to you at the time, but joy comes on the other side of doing what you never thought you could.  Besides, if you ever hope to turn that story into a successful book, business or other moneymaking adventure, it'll take your acquired strength to persevere when the only sound ringing in your ears is silence.

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