The Mirage of Overnight Success
Why solitude and persistence in creativity pays off over the long haul.
I stood in the middle of Seattle’s Paramount Theater on a brisk Saturday night in February, tears streaming down my face. Standing room only as the chairs on the main floor were removed for general admission ticket holders. Yellow and blue streams of light beams circled above, dancing on the ornate walls to our left and right.
Dave and I were out on a rare date, something we couldn’t recall doing since Evie joined the family. I guess that’s how it is when you have young kids and it’s tough to find babysitters you trust. (Or maybe, that’s what we tell ourselves when we don’t want to get out of our comfort zone.) We rushed to the theater, skipping dinner and the drink line to make it to a spot with a decent sightline to the stage for Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Jon Batiste.
Everything in us didn’t want to go. We were leaving for mid-winter break vacation in the morning, having barely packed two kids to get out the door by 9 am. The babysitter was late - I had to go pick her up from an extended phone replacement appointment. Did I mention I was hangry? We scarfed down pizza to get out the door.
And yet, a full hour into his 2.5 hour show, here I was in awe of a talented musician who did everything in his power to pour himself out for his fans - including telling the very stiff Seattle audience that they needed to dance with abandon in the most hilarious and polite way possible.
If you’ve watched the Netflix documentary AMERICAN SYMPHONY, then you know some of the parts of Jon’s story and his rise as a prominent artist. You learn of his wife
’s recurrence of her battle with leukemia. It’s a story that epitomizes the “both/and” of life- how big highs can also occur in tandem with devastating lows.It would be easy to count Jon’s storied success as “overnight.” Many people didn’t know his name until the 2022 Grammy Awards when he took home album of the year. And yet - I remember seeing him and his friends perform at a festival in New Orleans. What I didn’t see: the years at Julliard, the hustling on the corner, the unbelievable conversations when Stephen Colbert started approaching him to take over the show band, the likely emotion-filled decision to leave The Colbert Show.
And yet, it’s those moments out of the spotlight that fuel our creativity. It creates a lyric, it fuels an opening sentence, and it adds paint to the brushstroke. Sometimes it takes a year to create a performance masterpiece (I’m thinking of Beyonce’s Renaissance album and tour of 2023). Sometimes an essay or a song pours out of you in seconds.
The most magical creative works happen when no one is looking. The power of it all is how it resonates once your creative work is out in the world.
I needed that reminder when I heard Jon Batiste perform “Butterfly” - a lullaby written for Suleika when she was in the hospital last year. He composed hours of lullaby themes that he never planned to see the light of day, and yet, this one was nominated for a Grammy. In the lyrics, I see his hope and care for Suleika, and I feel the resonance of my hope and care for Evie. This is now the song I sing when I put Evie to sleep each night.
Standing in the Paramount listening to each chord on the grand piano, I’m transported everywhere all at once. To Suleika’s hospital room. To the Grammys stage. To Evie’s NICU crib. To Evie’s high school graduation. To some unknown stage I’ll be on, all because in the still small moments, I chose to create and write down stories that resonate.
I hope I can be as much of an “overnight success” as Jon. More importantly, I hope I can inspire others to find hope and care for others within my creative works - all done while no one is looking.
We’re about to launch
and I could not be more excited! The BEAM STORIES Podcast (formerly known as “And More with Amy Kugler”) will be shifting to that Substack, and I’ll make sure you move over as well.We want to hear from you! Each week we’re going to be sharing another story from a mom or caregiver on anything from parenting snafus, to family drama/lessons learned, to navigating a new identity, to everything in between.
Submit your story here and we’ll reach out!
Love, what are you creating in the quiet moments while no one watches? I’d love to know. Cheering you on,
