Want to be a Starr?

Roy Williams is a marketing genius whose weekly newsletter I anxiously read every Monday morning. It is appropriately called the Monday Morning Memo. Yesterday’s morning Memo was about a man who celebrated his birthday yesterday and who happens to be a friend of Roy Williams. I would like to take my liberties and retell a portion of the story and add my own little input to the story as well.

Richie Starkey struggled through his life as a child. People always made fun of his big nose. His parents divorced when he was just three. And he spent an extraordinary amount of time in the hospital.

When Richie was six he was rushed to the hospital with a ruptured appendix which put him in a coma for ten-weeks. When he finally came out of the coma he had another little accident. He was given two toys to play with when he discovered the boy in the bed next to him didn’t have any. So he passed one of his toys; a little red bus, over to the boy. While he was reaching to hand the boy the bus he slipped out of bed hitting his head on the table hard enough to put him back into a coma.

When Richie finally recovered he had missed a year of school so he was put in a class with much younger students.

Richie struggled to get caught up in school, but at age 13 he caught a cold that turned into pleurisy. This put Richie in the hospital for several more months and put him even further behind in school. Frustrated with the prospect of having to struggle even more in school Richie decided to drop out. He could barely read or write.

Richie went into business with three young partners. Those three became incredibly successful. Richie was always in their shadow.

One thing Richie always dreamt of but was never able to do was be in the audience during a Beatles concert. That is because the other toy…the one he didn’t give away in the hospital…was a drum. He taught himself to play it. And he began to wear a lot of rings. And he dropped the “sky” off his last name.

Perhaps you were able to figure out this story was about Ringo Starr.

How does what you did yesterday affect today? How about last month? Last year? Five years ago?

There is one thing we should take from our past…and that is growth. It is never too late in life to take the lessons of your past and use them to secure a better future. I’m not certain what lessons Ringo Starr took from his past…maybe it was a desire for a better life, maybe it was the love of drumming, maybe it was the knowledge of his academic education…I’m not really sure. But what I do see is the ability to not dwell on his shortcomings or his misfortune, but instead the ability to look for the right opportunity to use the abilities that he knew he had. No matter how specific they were.

Each one of us has been blessed with certain gifts and abilities…yet few use them to their fullest extent. There is no shortage of examples of people with unique gifts and abilites…sometimes totally off the wall things…and some people end up being incredibly blessed by it. While others with similar gifts and abilities end up saying it will never be anything more than a hobby…and they continue to toil away in a job that they loathe…never taking full advantage of the thing that they love and the abilities God had given them to be able to truly live.

Just a little food for thought today!!

Matthew 25:21 – “His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!”

Have a blessed day,

RodZ

© 2008 – Rodney Zimmerman – All rights reserved