by James L. Rubart, @jameslrubart
My column this month comes from my son and partner in The Rubart Writing Academy, Taylor Rubart. I thought it was so good I wanted to share it with you.
Hamilton, the rap/musical Broadway show has become a global sensation. It’s one of the most popular Broadway shows of all time, joining the likes of The Lion King and Phantom of the Opera. It was nominated for 16 Tony nominations, 11 of which it won, the Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
So, what made it so successful? Lin-Manuel Miranda combined two ideas that seemingly didn’t go together. Rap and the founding fathers. It doesn’t sound like it would work, but obviously, it did.
What Can We Learn?
When you combine two ideas that seemingly don’t go together, you can produce something unique, something that captures people’s minds, and more importantly, hearts. There’s nothing new about rap, and the story Lin-Manuel tells is hundreds of years old. But combined, they create something entirely new. What two ideas can you take and combine to create something unique?
Another Takeaway
Do you know how long it took Lin-Manuel to write the first song? A week? No. A month? No. Six? No. An entire year. How about the second song? Another year. He was obsessive, telling 60 Minutes “Every couplet needed to be the best couplet I ever wrote. That’s how seriously I was taking it.”
Which Reveals Another Truth
The sooner we learn this lesson the better — overnight success doesn’t exist. Success takes years, of concentrated work, failure, re-working, and more hard work. It‘s a mistake to think Lin-Manuel is a genius. He certainly has talent, but more than that, he worked at it. For years and years. An entire year, for one four-minute song.
The Key to Success?
Get creative. Push yourself beyond your norm. Then work hard. Very, very hard.
How Do You Stand Up for Yourself When It Means Losing Everything? Allison Moore is making it. Barely. The Seattle architecture firm she started with her best friend is struggling, but at least they’re free from the games played by the corporate world. She’s gotten over her divorce. And while her dad’s recent passing is tough, their relationship had never been easy. Then the bomb drops. Her dad was living a secret life and left her mom in massive debt. As Allison scrambles to help her mom find a way out, she’s given a journal, anonymously, during a visit to her favorite coffee shop. The pressure to rescue her mom mounts, and Allison pours her fears and heartache into the journal. But then the unexplainable happens. The words in the journal, her words, begin to disappear. And new ones fill the empty spaces—words that force her to look at everything she knows about herself in a new light. Ignoring those words could cost her everything . . . but so could embracing them.
James L. Rubart is 28 years old, but lives trapped inside an older man’s body. He thinks he’s still young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. He’s the best-selling, Christy BOOK of the YEAR, CAROL, INSPY, and RT Book Reviews award winning author of ten novels and loves to send readers on journeys they’ll remember months after they finish one of his stories. He’s also a branding expert, audiobook narrator, co-host of the Novel Marketing podcast, and co-founder with his son, Taylor, of the Rubart Writing Academy. He lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in Washington state.