Yes, you can be anything you want to be, with hard work, exceptional luck, patience, persistence and natural skill…X-Factor auditions are full, how about the BAE systems apprenticeship?

Yes, you can be anything you want to be, with hard work, exceptional luck, patience, persistence and natural skill…X-Factor auditions are full, how about the BAE systems apprenticeship?

I went to a Christmas singing concert last week to watch my daughter and others sing 70’s and 80’s disco tracks as that was the theme of the concert. The concert was organised by the local singing school. They all did well, some as young as five braving the glaring stage lights to perform a song, I couldn’t do it.

My daughter has natural singing talent, after the show she asked me for my feedback, I said she had done really well, although she could have given it a bit more oomph. She didn’t speak to me for the rest of the night.

The uncomfortable reality is… she practised the song at singing school for a few Saturday mornings, learning the lyrics and timing of the song but then she relied on the assumption that she would wing it, only practising for half an hour for the 3 days before the concert. I know you will think I sound like a pushy mum, but it isn’t that. It’s this dislike of instant reward for little work, a message that X-Factor and You Tube transmit.

“one day you will be discovered if you just sit there and radiate talent”

My daughter actually wants to be a police woman, she wants to go to university and gain a degree and enter the force as a detective. Singing may be a side line, to fund the ever-increasing University fees.

Nowadays, as a young person, you can really hedge your bets on being famous, as we churn out so much crap where talent and hard work have little to do with celebrity status, that it’s a dream you can nearly touch.

In 2010 a poll was conducted where some 1000 UK teenagers aged 16 were asked the question “what would you like to do for your career?” 54% said to be a celebrity. Those teenagers are now 23 years old. I wonder what percentage are on our TV’s? Did these teens keep another dream alive alongside “celebrity”?

What happens to our teenagers while they hold on to the dream of being singers, You Tubers, actors? They close the door on the things they may have a natural gift for. What we going to do when there are no scientists to further research on Alzheimer’s disease or a welfare assistant to take care of kids on the school lunch, because they are all standing in line waiting to be discovered. Being in the public eye, in entertainment, relies on one thing that we have no practical control over…LUCK

The Nolan sisters were discovered in the Blackpool Cliffs Hotel in 1973, their chart breakthroughs were in 1978 with their biggest hits in 1979…I’m not an expert but I’m guessing that took hard work, exceptional luck, patience, persistence and natural skill. Google The Cliffs Hotel in Blackpool, believe me, The Nolans had a bucket full of luck as well as talent.

If I tell my daughter, she can be anything she wants to be and that doesn’t happen, she will search internally to find the reason why, she will feel disappointed, but you need all the components for it to happen. She needs to know that she can increase the chances of it happening by practising the above, but don’t expect it.  Always have two plan A’s working concurrently.

When our kids want to be scientists, but are not brilliant at maths, it is our responsibility to say “let’s try something science related that doesn’t rely on maths”. Don’t hammer the maths and hold onto that particular dream.

When our kids want to be singers but don’t seem to get better year on year, let’s not buy extra lessons and hope that the talent will come, lets focus on learning make-up, hair and stage production aspects.

I will just say, just because it’s worth saying. That the new chief executive of BAE systems has just negotiated a 7.5 million pay packet and he can go to the supermarket without wearing a hat and wig and the press camping outside his house. Probably more effort, but he had a detailed plan along the way.

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