Goal Achievement On The Edge Of A Broken Heart!

I was browsing on you tube the other day, and came across a video with lots of big hair, that took me back into my past and reminded me of an important goal achievement tip on the edge of a broken heart…

The video was of girl rock group Vixen. A real American ‘hair metal’ band, formed with a distinct Bon Jovi flavour, and the video showed them doing a live version of my favourite song of theirs, Edge Of A Broken Heart. Here’s the video:


Tall sassy American girls, playing a pop/rock song with all the ingredients to be massive. In the video, Janet the singer talks of a trip to Europe. Well, on that trip to Europe, they visited the headquarters of their record company, EMI, in London – guess who was working at EMI at the time…

Yep. Me.

They swished into the office all haired and heeled up, so made a big impression, in more ways than one.

Janet literally draped herself over my desk and said “Hi, I’m Janet, and I’m the singer.”
I knew who she was, so I replied “ You can break my heart any day of the week, love.”

Ok, that’s a lie, I didn’t say that.

I actually picked up the phone, handed it to her, and told her that if she dialled 9 she would get through to someone who cared.

Ok, that’s a lie too, I didn’t say that either.
In reality I mumbled a ‘hello’, as I was busy picking my jaw up off the floor, and I dribbled a little bit.

When I got home, my girlfriend asked if anything interesting had happened at work.
‘No?’ I offered.

I really liked that song, it could have been much bigger than it was – co written by Richard Marx, who also produced and played on it, it has a no nonsense key change which pushed my buttons. I still like it now.

It was meant to explode them in Europe, but it didn’t quite happen. The music industry back then was as hard as it is now, and EMI put their full weight behind it, for one week, as one of their 2 singles of the week.

In that position, the song really has to take hold and build its’ own momentum in that week, or it’s done. The momentum never did take hold, and the breakthrough for Vixen didn’t happen.

They weren’t exactly failures. Plenty of tours, mixing headline shows with support slots for Ozzy Osbourne, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Kiss, Deep Purple – nothing to be sniffed at there!

They must have been getting ever close to that breakthrough, when the dreaded ‘musical differences’ came in, and they split up.
"Gordon Bryan", "goal achievement"
So, what’s the goal achievement tip? Well, long time readers of mine will know that it’s screaming out (much like Janet) (in a nice way)…

It’s that you must be prepared to put in the hard work, but that hard work will not always guarantee success. They put in the hard work ok, some serious hard work, but despite all the ingredients being in place, that next level success they wanted remained tantalisingly out of reach.

This was due to elements outside their control. All *they* could do was play the music, and do what they were told promotionally. The rest was up to others.
Who knows what might have happened if they hadn’t split – they did try a couple of reunions, but the moment had gone.

Look to your own goal. You may not want to be a big rock star, but whatever your goal, are you prepared to put in the really hard work, all the while accepting the possibility that the goal might not happen?

It’s a key attitude to have in place as you move forward – take a quick look at the video if you haven’t – check out that nifty key change at the end, imagine me gazing up in wonder at Janet’s *massive*… hairdo…, and consider your own goal at the ‘Edge Of A Broken Heart!

Ok, do let me know what you think, I love the feedback! Leave a comment, or share, tweet, like etc!

‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget to sign up for email updates of more motivational posts via the box at the top of any page.
P.P.S. I’ve written this little update in Nove 2013 as I found out that Jan Kuehnemund passed away in October. She certainly left an impact, on myself and many others – what will your impact be?

Do leave a comment!

Leave a Reply to Rebecca Mugridge X

18 Comments

    • Indeed Roy,
      in this case the others in the UK were the radio stations – the push was massive, but the sound was just a tad too US, even with all the Bon Jovi et al. Close but no cigar for the girls, a bit like me with Janet…

  • Very cool story. You have done a lot. Was EMI in Ealing? I know there were film studios there. I lived there for two years. Love London!

    • Thanks Carol,
      There have been a few adventures along the way, definitely! That was a fun day.
      This was EMI slap bang in the centre of London. The offices have moved now. When were you in London?
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • This is a great reminder, GreatGord, that hard work does not always equal success. But hopefully if it doesn’t–we’ll shift our focus or our trajectory or whatever needs to be shifted–so that we will enjoy what we consider success sooner rather than later!
    By the way, I would have loved to see your face when that lovely big-haired young lady draped herself across your neck!

    • Yep,
      Hard work doesn’t always guarantee success, but lack of hard work is a good way to ensure failure – they were unlucky, and very close to the BIG break. Luckily for me, there were no digital cameras or social networks back then to capture my face, it was probably a sight for sore eyes (as was Janet, to be fair) 😉
      Cheers, Gordon

  • Such a great tip here and told in such an interesting story!
    It really helps too I think to look at some of the greats we each admire and see how many of these put in the hard work in the beginning, something we sometimes forget.

    • Hi Bek,
      Having worked in the music industry for many years, I know how hard the acts work, and so many people just don’t appreciate the brutal nature of that kind of schedule. You can’t beat good old hard work to get moving towards goals, as you’ve demonstrated on your own blog! It certainly was an interesting day 😉
      cheers,
      Gordon

  • Hard work, good attitude, and don’t give up. Sometimes it’s not easy to align all three. And goals, like you said, we have to have goals. Good story.

    • Thanks Elise,
      You make a good point about aligningall three not always being easy.
      A fun story yes, and a fun song, with a fun key change ( I love them!) 😉
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Gordon, this is a good reminder to keep persevering and keep working at it. We are too often fooled into believing that all we need to do is give it a try and we will succeed and we too easily give up when the going gets tough.

    We’ll never know what would have been had they stayed together, but the writing was on the wall for giving up just before they might have seen a miracle happen.

    Good story. Thanks, Gordon!

    • Hi Jean,
      yep – the power of perseverance! As it happens, the band hadn’t been together for a huge time in band terms – a few years yes, but not years and years. However, once personality differences creep in, it can be all but impossible to carry on, and this relates to Kama’s point about doing what you love.
      Thanks for stopping by!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Fun story. I am starting to believe that if we keep doing what we love the the enthusiasm will shine through and we will be OK. If we try too hard then the energy isn’t right. Maybe we just need to be enjoying life doing what we love? At the end of the day we can’t control all the elements that have to come together to make something work. We can only do our best, enjoy what we are doing and trust. We can have goals while also being open to new directions?

    • Ah yes, Kama, this is an important point, and works particularly well in the field of entertainment.
      Is ‘being famous’ the end goal? Or is being paid to be in a band the actual goal, and the fame would be a bonus if it comes.
      This is why all the girls from Vixen are still playing today all these years later – doing what we love is indeed the key!
      cheers,
      Gordon

  • Nice to visit your website for the first time. I just wanted to share my personal experience of working away at something for many years. For me it was a case of knowing that the mandala paintings just wanted to emerge. So kept painting them. I couldn’t stop. And only some of them have sold over the years. But I just kept doing it without attachment to any goal in that sense. But now many years down the road I am creating an oracle deck from all my artwork which many people are now interested in. The paintings have given me great visibility over time. I wouldn’t have thought, all those years ago, that the huge body of work was going to come together for a different purpose. For me it’s about following through on what you know you are meant to be doing, no matter how it turns out.

    Lovely to see that these girls are still in the music business.

    • Hi Fiona,
      knowing what you are meant to be doing is something that many many people find hard to discover, or maybe know, but deny it.
      You are right that when you do it, you will reap the rewards as you go along, plus reap the benefits in the long term.
      Thanks for stopping by!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Thanks Gordon, I enjoyed this. I aspired to a hair-do like that but I didn’t put in the time and effort, and ended up with a just-as-embarrassing hennaed mullet. Can’t believe I admitted that! It makes a lot of sense to set the intention, put the groundwork in and let go of the results. Sometimes I have got the results I wanted, other times the results have been different but I have decided that they were always the *right* ones. I like to talk about ‘a lot of’ rather than ‘hard’ when I’m describing work, because hard sounds unpleasant and I’m not sure that the majority of work needs to be unpleasant. For me, doing my accounts and filing will always be hard, but the rest is just, well, protracted and sometimes a bit stressful, but often quite enjoyable once I have committed to spending the time. Thanks for a thought provoking post.

    • Hi Harriet,
      The way my brain is pushing upwards, I’m lucky to have any hairdo at all!
      It was a fun day, for a young’un like me, and they were really friendly girls.

      Setting out on a goal path will more likely than not bring results we didn’t exactly plan, and that’s part of the mindset we need – let’s face it, life will bring us results one way or the other, so we might as well be the ones in as much control as we can be!
      Cheers,
      Gordon