The Cream Always Rises to the Top

This guest post originally appeared on Anna’s 1st blog, Annamotion.

I was four years old when I realized I wanted to be in the music business. My favorite cartoon was Jem and I loved watching music videos. I mean, how great was A-ha’s “Take on Me” video? It still rock today! As I grew older, the feeling never changed. I wanted to be in the music business. Even when others tried to discourage me or tell me that I should run a company or go into politics, I held fast to my dreams. I knew that all I needed was the opportunity and that I would take it and run with it.

As life would have it, I did go into the music business right after college. I met my boss, Sergio George, at an event I helped to organize during my internship at the Atlanta chapter of The Recording Academy, the non-profit organization responsible for the GRAMMY’s. I met him and literally a week later I moved down to Miami and started working for him. I am very fortunate that he gave me my start in the business. I learned so much from him about music, business, and life. To this day, I still use everything that he taught me.

During my first year in the business, I took everything so seriously. I had something to prove. I was the first one in the office every morning and the last to leave every night. I had never worked at a label before so I hustled to find out everything I could about producing a record and taking it to market. Although it was very stressful, I loved every single minute of it. I loved watching a song transform from a demo into a fully mastered recording. It was magical.

Don’t get me wrong. There were moments that weren’t so magical, like the time I booked a flight for an artist on the wrong day. I’m fortunate that I noticed my error 15 minutes after booking. I called the airlines and, in a panic, explained to them what I had done. Although they refunded the flight, I felt foolish and was certain that I was going to be fired. Even to this day, when I book a flight, I triple check the itinerary’s date(s) and location(s) because of that experience.

Not to mention, there was also the time my boss and I had a huge miscommunication about when a record would be delivered. We were mastering the album in Italy and the mastering engineer had gone on vacation for the weekend. My boss promised the head of the record label that he would have the finished product sitting on his desk bright and early Monday morning. It was Friday at around 6 PM when he causally mentioned that during our phone call. “Wait, what?” I stammered. “The engineer is on vacation in London this weekend. He won’t be back until Monday.” I’ll never forget Sergio’s voice when he said,”That’s not what I told Behar. I promised him the record. We have to get this done.”

I felt like a rug had been pulled out from under me. I was frazzled from working so much and I felt stretched thin. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After we hung up, I went to the ladies’ restroom, walked into a stall, and burst into tears. I mean full on bawling. I cried for 20 minutes. I was certain that I was going to be fired. I would have to go back home to Texas, defeated. Everyone would be right–it was silly to think that I could be successful in this industry. There was no way I could fix this. It was my fault for not being able to. On and on went my thoughts. Before I left the office that night, I tried calling the studio in Italy. No luck.

The next day, I woke up at 6 AM (due to time zone differences) to call the studio in Italy again. I was able to speak to the studio assistant. I explained to her what had happened and convinced her to give me the mastering engineer’s cell phone number. I called him and explained to him what was going on. He said that he would get back from London on Sunday and head straight to the studio and start mastering. I was so grateful. I called Sergio to let him know that the engineer would just start sending over tracks one by one as he finished them. It was better than nothing. I still had the tremendous fear in my hear that I was going to be fired, that I had been outed as a fraud, and that my short career in music was now over.

Girl, bye.

It turns out that the differences in time zones worked to my advantage. The engineer in Italy mastered the album on Sunday and sent it over to us in Miami for review on Monday.

Gotta love technology!

Sergio was able to review it and give feedback. The engineer then made the changes. Just as promised, Behar had the record sitting on his desk when he walked into his California office that morning.

Relief and then exhaustion (from being on edge the entire weekend) flooded my body.

Life went on. I don’t think Behar or anyone else at the label ever knew what happened. Sergio has probably forgotten about it (I’ll ask him next time I talk to him). I never have forgotten the way I felt that day. I felt tired and discouraged.

One thing about Sergio is that he always sensed when I needed a pep talk. Shortly after, he told me,”LaTisha, keep doing what you’re doing. The cream always rises to the top. I know it doesn’t feel that way sometimes, but it’s true. Just keep doing your best and have faith. You will end up where you are supposed to be.”

Many years have passed since that happened. I now look back at that time in my life and realize that I had blown everything out of proportion. Sure, it could’ve been disastrous. However, I now understand that, no matter how it turned out, I would’ve survived and gotten through it.

I now know that everything happened the way it did for a reason.

I needed to learn my own value and self-worth. I needed to learn that, in life, you do your best and surrender the outcome. Control is an illusion–we never really can predict what’s going to happen. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, our value supersedes what we do for a living and where we work.

It can be so easy to confuse WHO we fundamentally are with WHAT we are doing for a living, especially when we are starting out in the world.

All throughout our education, we are trained to seek the “right” answer. We get out into the real world and use the same methodology that ensured our success as students. However, we learn very quickly that life (and work) is pretty messy and oftentimes that methodology fails us.

Although it may sound trite and counter-intuitive, this is the perfect opportunity to practice self-compassion. You are doing the best that you can with what you have, right where you are. Everything that you are going through is preparing you for what’s next.

As Sergio once told me, I now tell you,“Honey bunny, keep doing what you’re doing. The cream always rises to the top. Have faith that you will end up where you are supposed to be.”

No matter what twists, turns, or mistakes the journey has for you, you are an amazing being of light that cannot be dimmed. One day you, too, will look back on your path and realize that each challenge transformed itself into a pearl of wisdom that can never be taken away from you.

It’s your turn–comment below and let me know what challenges you’re facing in your life and career. How are you handling what life is throwing your way? What is your biggest takeaway from this blog post?