I don’t want to live your dream

By James Newcomb | December 8, 2023

This is a true story.

Today I was scrolling on Facebook and happened to see a particular trumpet being sold. This is a really rare, vintage model trumpet that is played by the one and only Chris Botti, who you may remember me humble bragging about interviewing a few months back here on the newsletter.

Well I remembered Chris saying he’s always open to buying this type of instrument, so when I saw it for sale, I messaged the guy selling it. I asked him if it’s still available, and if so, I know someone who might be interested in buying it.

I could practically hear the man’s jaw hit the floor all the way over in Arizona when I told him who I had in mind.

“Chris Botti?! You’ve got to be kidding!”

He went on and on about how Chris is his favorite trumpet player, how he has studied his music and his style for decades.

And when I mentioned I had interviewed him, he said something along the lines of, “Man, you’re living my dream!”

Hey, it’s nice to get a compliment. A truly sincere compliment can keep me motivated to keep at it for at least 3 months.

But respectfully, I want to live my own dream. I’ll do what I can to help you live yours, but I don’t want to actually live it.

That’s just awkward.

So I offered the guy to put him in touch with Chris and see if a one on one meeting of some sort can be arranged.

Apparently having the ability to text a person of Chris’ stature is quite the achievement in life.

And we’re now discussing a good way to go about it.

You live your dream by not living in fear. When I met Chris in September, of course I was nervous. But when it was mixed with confidence from not only years of experience, but a clear vision of what I want to achieve with the show, it was the kind of nervous that created a lot of really positive energy.

At any rate, I guess I have a pretty feather I can put in my cap with that interview, which by the way was one of the more popular ones in recent memory.

In case you’re kicking yourself for missing it, here’s the link to listen: https://trumpetdynamics.com/botti

That’s the beauty of podcasts; they tend to have a rather permanent nature to them once published 😉

Posted in Blog, James' Daily Emails

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