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Monday, February 2, 2009
Take a ChanceThis past Friday, something that happened to my sister reminded me of one of the great lessons I’ve learned
from bowling. My sister’s name is Mandy Gale and she is an award-winning singer/songwriter who is looking to make a
name for herself in the music industry/business/crazy house. She had the chance to be featured on the popular Los Angeles
Radio talk station 97.1FM’s “Frosty, Heidi and Frank Show” and have two of her songs played on the air during
the “Should I Stay or Should I Go” segment for fans to vote on (they vote “Stay” or “Go,”
hence the title).
People who are familiar with the show (I wasn’t until that day) know that it’s basically
the listening equivalent of watching monkeys fling dung at each other at the zoo (plus this week they had Corey Feldman in
as a guest judge…so the hoo-hoo-ha-ha-scratch-under-your-armpit factor was ratcheted up to elephantine proportions).
Bottom line? Basically anyone who chooses to allow himself to be critiqued by the judges on this show is asking for pain.
But it is also a chance for your music to be heard by a few hundred thousand people driving home on a Friday afternoon in
one of the biggest media markets (and music factories) in the world. Two of her band mates (and a few other musician friends)
warned her that she might want to think twice about going on the show, but Mandy held firm and decided to go through with
it.
When the segment started, the three hosts immediately let the listeners know that Mr. Feldman was running
late (I guess the 20th anniversary DVD actor’s commentary recording session for ‘Stand By Me’ ran long?)
and that they needed to kill some time. After the hosts ogled my sister’s photos, Mr. Feldman finally showed up and
they invited Mandy in on the phone. She handled herself extremely well and cracked a few jokes with the hosts and then introduced
her first song to be played, an upbeat roadhouse rock blues tune titled “Don’t Mind if I Do”.
I
happened to be in my car listening to the radio at the time and when the host said, “Here is Mandy Gale!” and
the first few bars of her song played over the air it sent chills up my spine like the first time I saw my Junior Amateur
Tour banner hanging from the masking unit at Verdugo Hills Bowl. The judges’ reviews of the first song ranged from decent
to mediocre and the callers pretty much backed that up with their votes…three “Go” and one “Stay”.
Mandy then chose to play the title track off her debut album (“Highway Blues”) for her finale. To say that the
critiques were not as nice in their critiques of this song is kind of like saying the Pope is Catholic. The three judges and
the less screwed up of the “Two Coreys” piled on like an angry mob after catching the village thief. The callers
added to the reverie (except for one woman named Kim who voted “Stay”), tossing in their own amateur barbs that
might have passed for funny were the audience comprised solely of second graders. Mandy kept her composure throughout and,
when it was over, gracefully thanked the judges for their time. Later that day, she received dozens of supportive e-mails
from friends, family and even strangers telling her to forget what the 97.1 yo-yos said and to keep going because her music
is great. She plans to.
The reason I bring up this story is because when I was a young up-and-coming bowler, I
saw so many of my bowling friends fail to reach their potential simply because they refused to try when there was even the
slightest chance that they might fail. I’d beg them to come and bowl this tournament or that tournament because we’d
get to compete against the best competition and they’d either refuse or make up some excuse why they couldn’t
bowl. I could never understand why they didn’t want to accept the challenge of competing because I always loved it,
even though I lost most of the time. Although my journey as a competitive bowler is through, now that I’m older I have
developed a great admiration for people who are not afraid to try things and take risks in whatever field they choose to pursue.
And as far as I know, this is the best way for us to improve ourselves and for us to ever hope to reach our full potential.
I admire my sister for having the courage to put herself out there and to see what other people have to say about
something that is so personal and that she feels so strongly about. I can only hope that I have as much courage in the things
that I choose to pursue in my own life. Oh, and if you want to judge a few of her songs for yourself (or check out her videos…I
shot and edited both by the way!), check them out here: www.myspace.com/mandygale66
See you next week!
Contact me at: jason@jasonthomasbowling.com
Click here to check out a new interview with Jason Thomas about his book “Livin' The Dream: How to Get What You Want, Find
True Meaning and Save the World by Bowling!” To purchase a copy of the book, click here.
Click here to read “Jason’s TV Recap - Uncensored” on PBA.com.
To check out the latest episode of The Bowling
Show click here.
12:10 pm est
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LIVIN' THE DREAM:
How
to get what you want, find true meaning and save the world by bowling!
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR
Q:
What is the book about?
A: The book is about how the valuable
lessons I learned through my lifelong involvement in bowling saved my life and transformed me from an unhappy cynic into a
blissfully happy optimist.
Q: What made you decide to write it?
A: I had been out of the bowling industry for about two years and I had hit a very low point in my attitude about
life. Through the help of a family member, I was able to rediscover the important lessons about success, spirituality and
connecting with others. I was so excited about this transformation that I decided to write a book that attempts to detail
the metamorphosis while outlining the important lessons I remembered.
Q: How is this
book different from other self-help books?
A: The book is different in a number
of ways. First, I am a very unlikely person to have written a self-help book. If you had known me before I'd written the book,
you'd know precisely what I mean. But that fact alone reveals how strongly I felt about writing it, because I knew that if
I could change for the better, then I felt anyone could do it and that there was a good chance that I could help a lot of
people by describing the process and arranging the pieces in a way that could be easily understood.
The
other key point of difference is the way the book is arranged. The story is structured into three parts, The Method, Some
Cool Tricks and For the Hard-Core Cynics, each of which contain the important lessons I wanted to share. Every chapter is
also broken up with a narrative of my personal story, told for the purpose of detailing my amazing attitude transformation.
It begins with the extremely low point when others felt the need to reach out to help me to remember the important things
in life and goes on to detail the many people that helped me to learn the most important life lessons, including: my childhood
friend Robert Smith, my father (a former President of Disneyland International), PBA Chairman Chris Peters and former PBA
CEO Steve Miller.
Q: Is the book as funny as your blogs?
A: Yes! But there is also a serious side too.
Q: How is your book different from
something like The Secret?
A: My book is similar to The Secret
in that it proposes a method for success, but it is different in a number of ways. First, it is a bit more practical when
it comes to outlining the method for achieving success. The Secret comes very close to describing a similar method
for success in its "Ask, Believe, Receive" mantra. In my book, the first two of these elements ("Ask"
and "Believe") are integral (although I call them "Dream" and "Self-Belief"), but I believe
there has to be some proactive work done to achieve the goal. I call it hard work (which turns a lot of people off, of course)
but to use the model of The Secret, you would simply replace the word "Receive" with "Retrieve."
The best part of all this (and the good news for the folks who don't want to have to work hard) is that once you decide on
what you want and then you begin to believe you can get it, the work is no longer hard, but becomes a fun activity that fills
your days with joy and purpose.
Second, my book spends a significant amount of time discussing
how to deal with your success once you've attained it (and that conducting yourself in this manner before
you reach your goals will actually help you get there even faster). Probably the best way to describe my
book is that it's a cross between The Secret and the late Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture.
But I also quote a number of more research-driven books like Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, Sam Harris' The
End of Faith and Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate to help me make my point.
Q: Do you have to be a bowler to like this book?
A: Absolutely
not! Bowling obviously plays a major role (although it really serves more as the setting rather than as the primary focal
point) because of my involvement with the sport my whole life. But the lessons bowling taught me are lessons I could have
learned if I had chosen to be a golfer or a doctor or a writer (oops, I guess that one's a bad example now). My hope is that
the book will find its way into the hands of people who don't bowl and that these people will come away with a new appreciation
for bowlers and the sport of bowling.
Q: What is your goal with the book?
A: That is a simple one. To help as many people as possible to experience the gift of embracing an optimistic way
of life and to help them reap its many rewards. 
