Your dreams can become a joyful reality, even go viral, if you learn this vital lesson from my life...

It very nearly turned into the nightmare of a colossal failure.

Once upon a time, in the early 1970s, a richly ornate one-of-a-kind auditorium was built, and about to welcome an invitation-only crowd of VIPs for its 3-day gala dedicatory inaugural concert.

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra, led by famed conductor Carlo Maria Giulini, was to perform selections by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Brahms to an exclusive group of invitees for all three concerts, starting April 7, 1974 the final two nights of which were to be broadcast live over a local Los Angeles radio station.

The opening night's concert would be attended by dignitaries from around the world, including a member of the Japanese Diet, the Jordanian Ambassador to the U.S., the Ethiopian Ambassador to Kenya, a World Court at the Hague judge and his wife, among many others, including the visionary founder and originator of the plush, richly finished premiere performing arts palace, and the college campus where it was built in Pasadena, California, Herbert W. Armstrong.

My Vision

Having contributed to the building fund, while the auditorium was under construction, I relocated back to my alma mater from Denver in late 1973, arriving broke and in need of work.

In February or March 1974, as word of the impending inaugural began to circulate, I told a group of my closest friends and acquaintances that it was my intention to attend the opening night concert, even though I had no invitation or even a tuxedo to wear to this once-in-a-lifetime happening.

Considering the fact that at the time I was a low-paid on-field bus driver at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), and had no hope of ever receiving an invitation, I somehow thought and believed that I would actually be in attendance and told my friends so, to their increasing derision, mockery, incredulous disbelief, scorn and ridicule.

You can probably guess where this all ended up, but first a little background on my move, leading up to this pivotal event in my life...

A Narrow Escape...

After two years of university in Kansas City, followed by two years struggling to start, then maintain, a fledgling commercial art business in Denver with no startup capital other than the tools and skills I brought to the task, I had finally reached the end of my financial rope more or less.

Before another harsh winter could hit and once again put my business on hiatus, I took the last several hundred dollars to my name, rented a trailer and hitch for the second hand Ford Galaxy automobile I bought for less than $100 and, with my brother Terry who was visiting from Kansas City at the time, we loaded all my belongings into the trailer.

With just barely enough funds left over to buy gas for our planned cross-country trip, my brother and I set out for Pasadena, California with the promise of a job as head of a new television studio animation department upon my arrival.

Along the way, having traversed the Colorado river by way of the Hoover Dam on the state line between Arizona and Nevada one night, we pulled over for a rest stop at the first off-road area we came to, past steep ravines which dropped precipitously away from the winding two-lane highway with harrowing hairpin curves, having barely enough left to pay for gas the remainder of the trip into the Los Angeles area, and nothing left to spare even to buy us a little food.

Following a brief rest, as we tried to pull back onto the road, the trailer suddenly jerked to the right with a thud, throwing sparks off the pavement, forcing us to pull back off the road to investigate what had happened.

One of the four tires, the back tire on the passenger side of the four-wheel trailer, was missing entirely!

Terry and I spent a cool night sleeping in the car until early the next day, when we unhitched the trailer and retraced our route back toward the dam, searching for the missing tire still on its wheel, which had somehow detached from the axle and flown off, without causing the trailer to lurch, swerve or flip the previous night.

Down a steep ravine on the opposite side of the road we had traveled I spotted a tire, and pulled over to attempt to retrieve it.

Somehow I managed to clamber down the precipitous slope and, pushing the tire above my head, slowly and painstakingly struggled back up the near vertical incline, loading the tire in the back seat of our car, then turning around we returned to the trailer still parked on the opposite side of the road heading toward Las Vegas.

As we pulled up I noticed something odd.

The off-road strip of a tourist stop building (now long since converted into a lodge, casino and cinema complex) where we had first pulled off the pavement to rest, had been built on the western end of an old railroad spur line, about which there was constructed a chain-link fence for approximately twenty or so feet out from the east end of the building, with a gate closing off access to this rectangular fenced enclosure.

There, resting against the gate, I spied yet another wheel and tire, apparently our missing tire which had detached, rolled and come to rest there, just as we had pulled off the road the night before!

We had narrowly escaped a major accident, had this happened while driving over the Hoover Dam or the dangerous curves of the old highway 172 just beyond it, in pitch darkness near midnight of the previous evening.

Hard Work And Preparation Pays Off

Calling the nearest trailer rental agent in Henderson, Nevada for roadside repair resulted in a refusal to come to our aid, despite our contract stipulating such help, unless we paid for their time and gas, for which we had no funds to spare.

Leaving the trailer on the side of the road once again, we drove the twenty-three miles to the rental trailer dealer to discuss the matter with them.

The answer was still an emphatic "No," they would not make the repair trip without payment of some kind up front.

As I related the story of finding the spare lost tire, which was still in the back seat of our car, when I showed it to the dealer, he suddenly remarked that the wheel was a rare, hard-to-find 5 lug variety and wondered aloud if we would be willing to sell it to him.

I replied that we would be happy to trade it in return for the needed repair trip, to which he instantly agreed, making the remainder of our journey possible, after a brief stopover in Vegas that morning for some much needed free food at several casinos along the way!

"Never Give In. Never Give In. Never. Never. Never."

Those are a few of the words from a short speech delivered to a student assembly at the Harrow School for Boys in London, England on October 29, 1941 by one of its former pupils, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill.

I had never heard this quote personally, until decades later in life, but the events that followed for my brother and I were certainly indicative of the wisdom of those words, which continued:

"In nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

Yet, despite discovering my promised job had been given to someone else before my arrival in Pasadena, thereafter living in a cramped, small and cold converted garage, taking whatever work I could quickly find, including briefly delivering the Wall Street Journal to businesses in downtown L.A., and a brief stint as an unpaid disc jockey with my own call-in nighttime show for an area cable radio station, I still had the gall to dream big.

And this apparently irritated and irked many of my acquaintances, whose attitudes were far less positive, uplifting or visionary.

As April 7th approached, I spent the only $100 I had struggled to save the previous several months, to buy a used rental tuxedo, shirt, bow tie, and a pair of patent leather shoes to complete the very first formal attire I had ever owned.

With plans to become a successful performer, this was to be my on-stage costume, but initially I planned to use it for attending the inaugural concert of Ambassador Auditorium.

Which very nearly never happened, due to the derisive words of my nay-saying friends, which disheartened and almost cowed me into surrendering my dream and giving up on my vision.

In fact, the night of the concert, I almost didn't put on my "new" tux, or mount my only mode of transportation at the time, a bicycle, to ride the roughly two miles mostly uphill from my apartment in South Pasadena to the Ambassador College campus and its brand new performing arts Auditorium.

Arriving a little later than planned, and despite having no clue how I might actually gain entrance without an invitation, I nervously approached the door just after the overture had begun, following which the ushers had been instructed no one was to be permitted to enter the auditorium, even if they held an invitation!

Success!

Only once I was almost at the door, did a possible plan to attend the concert then already in progress present itself to my conscious mind.

Speaking with an usher at the door I asked if there were any empty seats available, due to invited guests who had failed to attend that evening, and offered myself as a suitably attired fill-in, helping them occupy an empty seat for the sake of appearances to the other attendees invited that night.

After hurriedly speaking with his supervisor, the usher returned to inform me that my request had been granted, but that I would need to wait until the overture was finished before I could be seated!

Soon I was quickly ushered into the main floor of the auditorium and shown to a vacant seat, with the curious heads of some of the rich and famous, movers and shakers in attendance that night wondering who this was of such apparent importance, being seated after strict instructions that no one was to be admitted after the concert had begun.

Later, in the ornate rose onyx and gold leaf decorated entrance foyer and grand lobby to the auditorium, under a huge bronze chandelier containing hundreds of individual crystals, standing on the 100% wool royal purple and gold carpeting custom fabricated and imported from Hong Kong, I was introduced alongside Herbert Armstrong to various other dignitaries that night, including the representatives from the Japanese Diet.

Afterward, I joined the crowd in attending a lavish reception with large ice sculptures in the nearby Student Center building, before finally retiring to return home that night, riding my bicycle in full tux over the mostly deserted city streets, back to my poor and humble abode.

Going Viral!

To say the least, my former nay-saying friends were astonished and almost speechless when they learned of my exploits of the previous night!

This began a hurried spat of rumors and gossipy tale-bearing, as my brother Terry donned my tuxedo (which fit him a bit too snugly), to try and attend the following night's concert along with a few others of those who previously had thought this an impossibility, as I stayed home and recorded the concert from the radio broadcast.

Not only did they succeed, there were approximately 50 total hopefuls without invitations who showed up at the door that night seeking seating, all of whom where allowed to attend!

On the third night I again put on my tux and, along with a couple of widows visiting from Denver, tried to gain seating for the final night's inaugural concert. However by then there were nearly 100 others who showed up early to form a line of hopefuls also seeking non-invitation seating that night.

So many, in fact, that there were only enough spare seats for all but one of us.

Satisfied over being the only non-invitee in attendance at the opening concert, I returned home after being turned away that night, happy that some of my friends and acquaintances were able to follow my initial success to attend a once-in-a-lifetime event they never would have dreamed possible only a few days before.

The Moral Of This Story

Stubborn perseverance can pay off, if you persistently follow your dreams and visions; but this will more than likely mean also facing up to your worst fears and overcoming them first.

Don't be afraid to look foolish in the eyes of some, or give in to peer pressure to abandon your dreams.

All success is finally achieved in defiance of possible and even some actual failed attempts.

You'll never know the thrill of achievement without risking your current status quo, to boldly step forward and accomplish what others only vainly dream of obtaining.

All the discouragement and struggle getting there will soon fade away, as you enjoy attaining lofty goals and fulfilling aspiring visions of successful accomplishments that most never attain.

Mainly because the majority give up just short of the final achievement that would have made their success a reality.

Don't ever allow pessimism, doubt or discouraging words to derail, dissuade or sidetrack you from your course.

That's really your only sure ticket to being in the "right place" at the "right time," to finally make your dreams come true!