From all of us at the Real Brian Show, a very Merry Christmas! In this farewell-to-2016 installment of the podcast, we bring you yet more Star Wars, plenty of talk about Christmas, and an amazing conversation with Nicholas McCarthy about his experiences as a concert pianist.
Nicholas McCarthy was born without his right hand, but he was also born with an extraordinary aptitude for piano. If that combination doesn't make sense, you will be astounded by the interview in this week's episode of The Real Brian Show. Brian and Nicholas dig in to the prejudice produced by the inherent handicap having only one hand presents and how the challenges he faced as a young person grew him into exactly who he needed to be as an adult.
More than simply rising to the occasion, or facing adversity head-on, Nicholas's story is one of those rare and unique, and totally authentic, tributes to a calling deep within the human spirit. We can each have a strong desire to do or to be something, but facing the word "No" or experiencing rejection can be a show stopper. Nicholas's skills tickling ivory were too great to allow any form of rejection to get in his way, and it is incredibly inspiring.
Negativity makes a lot of noise. Nicholas and Brian talk about this noise and how it can seem to drown out everything else around you. No matter how many people tell you something positive, the negatives are what seem to make the most noise. This manifests in a lot of ways. After the 2016 presidential election, for example, the negativity around the results was extremely loud and prolonged. All I remember from the first couple days after the election are the riots. A couple years ago, on the other side of this, Brian and I interviewed Greg Weisman (known for his work on comic-book and animated television series). He brought up the excellent point that when reading reviews about his own work, he can recite the negative reviews verbatim, and yet recall very little from the positive reviews.
Constructive criticism is my bread and butter. The only way to grow and improve is to keep at what you love doing and use the input from others to make adjustments as necessary. But, in the words of my one of my favorite authors, "few of us really have the heart to be in love without encouragement." It is hard to love anyone, or anything, without the encouragement to do so. While it's useful to have people in our lives who tell us the truth, in a more critical way, it is equally important to receive positive feedback. Even more importantly, it is important to listen to and trust positive feedback.
If you aren't getting any positive reinforcement for your endeavor, don't give up yet - make some adjustments. Try a new audience. As for feedback differently. Try to get to the root of why you're surrounded by negativity. Don't let the noise overwhelm you, try to drown it out with a healthy balance of input from the opposing force.
Merry Christmas!
-- Emilee