How Studying Yo-Yo Ma Taught Me the Blueprint for Success
Part 1: My Journey of Musicianship and Its Lesson of Success
Back when I was in college, I genuinely believed I was going to be a musician for the rest of my life. Not just a hobbyist or band geek—I mean a full-blown professional musician. That belief didn't start in college, but it was solidified there. I had been playing music since second grade, starting with the clarinet. But it wasn't until my junior year of high school that the trajectory of my life completely changed.
I transferred to a new school, and my high school band director needed a French horn player. I had never played French horn before, but he handed it to me anyway and forced me to learn it. Something clicked.
First year playing French Horn my Junior Year of high school and competed at the State Level!
I was naturally good at it—naturally talented in a way I hadn't experienced before. Soon, I was competing and becoming one of the greater French horn players in the entire state. I was getting gigs across the state and in different states as well.
I found myself gravitating toward orchestra instead of just being a band French horn player. I found so much more depth and enjoyment in orchestral music compared to band music. This transition felt meaningful, substantial. Then I made the decision that truly altered my path: I decided to attend college for French horn performance rather than pursuing something "practical" like becoming a doctor. That was when it solidified for me that I was going to be a professional musician.
In college, everything intensified. I started taking private lessons from one of the greatest French horn instructors in the world. This man had an absolutely incredible background, and I was beyond fortunate to be working with him. He challenged me in ways I couldn't have imagined. He pushed me past limits I didn't even know existed.
One of the very first challenges he gave me was learning to play the natural horn. This isn't just any ordinary French horn—it's a historical instrument without valves. Everything you play depends entirely on your posture, your lips, and your hand position in the bell. It's an extraordinarily difficult instrument to master. But if you can play it well, you join an elite group of people in the modern world who can perform on this historical instrument.
I fought against it at first. It was so foreign to me. But eventually, I did it. I conquered that challenge. He gave me various exercises, music, warm-ups, and books to study from. But this was different from my pre-college experience. Before college, music had been a creative hobby. Now, working with one of the best horn players and instructors in the world, music became deadly serious. Learning the natural horn solidified my commitment to mastery and excellence.
But here was the problem: I had no idea what a natural horn was supposed to sound like. I'd never heard anyone play one. So I had to immerse myself—watching countless YouTube videos, checking out CDs from the music library—all to understand how this foreign instrument should sound. I watched videos repeatedly, observing how players physically approached the instrument. This total immersion helped me tremendously.
Then came the second challenge—the one that would change everything.
Looks foreign, doesn't it?
My instructor—this brilliant, perhaps slightly mad genius—placed the six Bach cello suites in front of me and said, "This is your next big challenge."
I looked down at the music. "This says 'cello.' I don't read cello music. I don't understand cello. I don't play cello. Why am I looking at this?"
He replied simply, "You're going to learn how to play it."
"Sir, I don't know how to play cello."
"No," he clarified, "you're going to play it on the French horn."
Dun dun DUHHHHH!
I was stunned. "There's no way I can play a piece meant for cello on the French horn. That's impossible. Cellos have different ranges, different musicianship. It's completely different—the way you play it, the way you attack the notes. And I don't even know how to read this music either. How am I supposed to do any of this?"
He was unmoved. "It's next up. You don't have an option. This is the next thing you're going to learn if you want to be one of the greatest French horn players ever."
I was completely against it, but I knew I had to approach this the same way I had approached learning the natural horn. I turned to YouTube and discovered Yo-Yo Ma playing the six Bach cello suites. He played them entirely from memory on the cello, which blew my mind. I tried searching for other people who had played the cello suites on French horn, but I couldn't find anyone good, or anyone who had played all six suites. We're talking about an hour and a half to two hours of music.
The challenge was overwhelming for multiple reasons:
First, I was trying to play music that wasn't written for my instrument.
Second, I couldn't even read the notation properly.
Third, I couldn't find anyone else who had successfully done what I was attempting.
And fourth—this might sound strange to someone who isn't a musician—I didn't even like Bach as a composer. I didn't care for his pieces, arrangements, or music. His compositions didn't make sense to me musically or theoretically.
So I was facing a perfect storm of obstacles: playing music not written for my instrument, not being able to read it, not having models to follow, and not even liking the composer. But I wanted to be successful. I needed to be one of the greatest French horn players who ever lived. So I decided to be coachable and do whatever I could to learn it.
I began watching Yo-Yo Ma's videos obsessively. I listened to his performances everywhere—in my dorm room, walking to classes, even while trying to play alongside him. I would slow down the videos so I could try to match his tempo and phrasing on my French horn.
The obsession grew deeper. I memorized every lift, every softer note, when he would slow down by even one beat per minute. I memorized how he was introduced, the applause patterns from the audience. I could tell you exactly when the microphone would pick up someone shouting "woo" louder than everyone else. I mastered every aspect of that recorded performance to become one of the greatest, most successful French horn players who ever lived.
It took an enormous amount of time. For the first few months, I couldn't even get comfortable reading the music. But I kept pushing. The story of how I eventually got to my recital where I played the entire thing (not from memory like Yo-Yo Ma—I didn't have that kind of time or desire) is one of total immersion and transformation.
When I finally performed at my recital and masterclass, I played better than I ever expected. Through this journey, I learned so much about myself, about the French horn, about music, about success, about leadership from my instructor, about time management. I learned countless lessons that all fall within the five blueprints to success.
And that's why I'm writing this article. Because that experience taught me that musicians are perfectly positioned to master success in any field—wealth, business, happiness—based on the exact same principles they use to master their instruments.
Let's break it down.
Part 2: The Biggest Myth About Success You Need to Overcome
The Identity Trap: "I Can't Because I'm Not"
The most common myth or mindset trap that I see people fall into when it comes to success, mastery, or starting over is that because of their identity or their past or their history, they will never be successful in something brand new.
This happened to me too. The biggest misconception I had back then was thinking that a good, naturally talented French horn player who had played many different musical instruments in many different capacities, who had been hired across multiple states, who was fought over by different colleges—that this person could not pick up music from a completely different instrument and play it well.
When we translate that into success terms, my biggest misconception was believing that I could not do something completely outside my own identity. I kept thinking, "I'm just this because I only do this" or "I only know this path" or "I only know this way" or "I only know this skill" or "I have this history." I genuinely believed I could not be extremely successful doing something else.
This happens constantly in life with so many people. They believe that just because they are poor, or just because they've never learned business, or just because they have never been paid more than $10 an hour, that they cannot be massively successful. I don't mean just moderately successful—I'm talking about extremely, wildly successful doing something completely different.
The "I'm New At This" Delusion
Another massive misconception I had was telling myself, "I'm new to this." I thought playing the natural horn was new to me. I thought learning cello music on French horn was new to me. But that's the misconception! You're never new at anything, no matter what.
The first time you do something might be the first time you do it in that particular way. But you learn everything you need to live life before you're five years old. Everything. So you're not new to anything at all. Back then, I believed I was new at this stuff and would struggle to learn anything. That misconception plagues so many people today.
But here's the truth: if your past, your history, your identity is what would make you successful, then you won't be successful. You need to understand how musicians are set up in a perfect way to master success. Their entire life revolves around obsessing over success in whatever way, shape, or form.
The Musician's Secret: Same Notes, Different Pattern
Think about it like this: when a musician first encounters the Bach Cello Suites, the way I did, it looks completely foreign. It's overwhelming. It feels impossible. The notation itself might be unfamiliar. The fingerings don't exist for your instrument. The musical structures seem impenetrable. But musicians know something that most people don't—they're never truly starting from zero.
It does not matter how foreign the language is. It doesn't matter how much they don't understand it just yet. When a musician gets a new piece in front of them, they've never played it before. Well, they have. They've played every note on that page. They just have not played it in this pattern yet. That is the only difference.
This is the secret most people miss about success. You already know the "notes." You've already developed the fundamental skills. You've already practiced the basic movements. You're just arranging them in a new pattern. The same way I already knew how to breathe, how to form an embouchure, how to read music, how to count rhythms—I just needed to apply these known skills to this foreign-looking challenge.
From Noise to Music: The Journey to Comprehension
When I first started studying Yo-Yo Ma's performances, I couldn't hear anything specific. The entire Bach Cello Suites sounded completely foreign to me. Everything about it—the way he played, the music itself, the bow movements—I literally couldn't understand any of it. It was like listening to and watching a completely foreign language.
For the first 50 times or so that I listened to the whole thing, I didn't hear any details. I didn't notice anything minor. I couldn't even see the way his bow strummed the cello differently. There was nothing that I could understand about it at all. Nothing stood out to me immediately—not a single thing.
It wasn't until I started practicing sections, diving deeper, and going back to his performances that things began to emerge. As I mastered certain sections, or what I thought was mastering them, I started to understand different segments better. I began to see how he played various phrases, to hear the subtle differences, to notice the minute details.
With the Bach Cello Suites, I couldn't initially hear the phrases, the dynamics, the subtleties. It all sounded like noise—a foreign language I couldn't comprehend. But I knew that if I broke it down note by note, measure by measure, movement by movement, eventually the language would make sense. Eventually I would make music, not just noise.
The Symphony of Success: Hearing What Isn't There Yet
What I began to realize about success or mastery that I had never understood before was this profound truth: when I'm looking to become successful or master something, I won't see how at first. I won't even understand how at first. I won't think it's possible—most people don't. I won't understand how or why certain things are required to become successful.
But if I continue pushing, continue trying, continue learning, continue listening, continue watching, if I continue breaking it down chunk by chunk, then I'll eventually uncover the details about what it takes to become successful. I'll eventually see the small things that make all the difference.
When you're going for such a massive feat as becoming truly successful, you have to do things you've never done before. If it's completely clear to you how you're going to do it, then you're probably not aiming high enough. When you don't understand how, when you don't know why it takes certain steps, that's when you know you're doing something that's putting you on a path to extraordinary success.
Success works the same way music does. When you encounter a new business opportunity, a new career path, a new relationship—you can't initially see how all the pieces will come together. You can't "hear" the final symphony of your success. But if you approach it like a musician—knowing you have the fundamental skills and just need to arrange them in a new pattern—then you can tackle anything.
Even at my recital, when I had reached what others might call mastery and success, I still didn't feel the success. I still didn't feel all the hard work. I had just put in the time and the effort and learning. I had done everything I needed to do to continue pushing along. It wasn't easy, and I didn't know how long it would take, and it was extremely difficult doing all of these brand new things I had never done before. But I had to.
The Obsession Principle: Beyond Practice to Embodiment
That's the other big lesson: you should be looking at those who have come before you and succeeded at what you're trying to do. Sometimes, they might not be doing the exact same thing you're attempting, but by watching them closely, that's how you learn. I can't tell you how many times I watched other Yo-Yo Ma videos, listened to other CDs of his, studied interviews he gave. I needed to learn everything about Yo-Yo Ma to figure out how he even got to that level of mastery.
This wasn't casual research. This was complete immersion. When I say I studied Yo-Yo Ma, I don't mean I just appreciated his music. I broke down his entire approach to performance. I analyzed how he entered a room. I studied his posture. I watched how he breathed between movements. I observed how he held the bow, how he approached difficult passages, how he recovered from the slightest imperfections. I wanted to understand not just what he did, but how he thought.
You need to become obsessed with success and wealth and happiness. You need to become obsessed with it to get it. Whatever or whoever you're studying, you have to learn everything about them. At that point in time, success or mastery to me wasn't just playing the piece note by note and finishing. Success was becoming Yo-Yo Ma. I don't think it was about the piece at all—it was about embodying excellence itself.
And this is exactly what most people miss about true success. They focus on learning the tactics, the surface-level actions. But that's like a musician who only practices the notes without understanding the emotion, the context, the history of the composer. It's hollow. It's mechanical. It will never reach the level of mastery that moves people.
I had to study Bach as well. I didn't just study Yo-Yo Ma's performance—I studied the composer who created the work in the first place. I needed to understand Bach's intentions, his musical language, his historical context. I had to go to the source, not just the interpreter.
This applies directly to building wealth, creating happiness, or achieving any form of success. If you want to be financially independent, you need to go look at someone who's financially independent and see just look at the way that they grocery shop. Go to the places they live, the bars they frequent—if they even do that. Identify how they spend money at the bar, if they even do that.
If you want to be happy, go where people generally are happy and listen to what they talk about. If you want to make it to the top of your company, go to the places that people like them go to and watch what they talk about. Watch how they talk to each other.
The obsession isn't just about learning information—it's about absorbing their entire approach to life. It's about understanding the mindset that leads to their decisions, not just the decisions themselves. Most people are willing to do a little research, maybe read a book or take a course. But they're not willing to study every aspect of success with the same dedication a musician studies a masterpiece.
When I was preparing for that recital, I didn't just practice the notes. I practiced walking onto the stage like Yo-Yo Ma. I practiced sitting with the posture and presence that commanded attention. I practiced the slight pauses between movements that created anticipation. I was literally becoming a different person through this process of obsessive study and practice.
From Imitation to Internalization: The Transform Point
There's a critical moment in the journey of mastery that most people never reach. It's the point where imitation transforms into internalization. This happens when you've studied someone so deeply that their excellence becomes part of your own neural pathways.
For me, this happened somewhere around the thousandth time I listened to Yo-Yo Ma's performance. Suddenly, I wasn't just copying him anymore—I was understanding him. I could anticipate what he would do before he did it. I could feel why he made certain interpretive choices. His excellence had started to rewire my own understanding of music.
This is when I realized that mastery isn't about perfecting external techniques—it's about developing an internal compass that guides every decision. Yo-Yo Ma doesn't play Bach perfectly because he's trying to play perfectly. He plays perfectly because he has internalized the music so deeply that anything less would feel wrong to him.
The same principle applies to wealth building. The truly wealthy aren't constantly thinking about money-making tactics. They've internalized wealth principles so deeply that making poor financial decisions would feel unnatural to them. Their excellence is effortless because it's become who they are, not just what they do.
When you embody excellence rather than just practice it, you make better decisions automatically. Your standards rise without conscious effort. Your perception sharpens naturally. What once seemed impossible becomes your baseline.
This is why I emphasize that success was becoming Yo-Yo Ma, not just playing like him. I needed to adopt his standards, his perception, his relationship with music—not just his fingering techniques or bowing patterns. I needed to see the world through the eyes of a master.
And here's what's fascinating: once you've embodied excellence in one domain, you can transfer that embodiment to other areas of life. The same obsessive study I applied to music, I now apply to business, to relationships, to personal development. The same standards of excellence I developed as a musician, I now bring to everything I do.
That's the transformative power of the obsession principle. It doesn't just make you better at a specific skill—it fundamentally changes who you are and how you approach everything in life.
Musicians are perfectly set up because of the five blueprints to success. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Part 3: Applying My Experiences to The 5 Success Blueprints
Blueprint #1: Accountability and Goal Setting
In the context of music, accountability showed up for me in several powerful ways. The biggest was that I set a hard deadline—my recital. This set a very clear goal and a very clear deadline. That recital deadline helped massively because it forced me to realize how big of a feat this was and that I was not going to be able to finish what I needed or wanted in the amount of time that I was allotted. So I had to really look deep and push myself harder than I ever had before.
My instructor was also a great source of accountability. Financially, he was great financial accountability because I had to pay for lessons with him. But I was meeting with him twice a week for my lessons, and they were rough. Every lesson I had to have shown some level of either improvement or some level of difference or something. I could never go empty-handed with nothing.
I also had this personal standard that I wanted to be the greatest. That's what was the biggest thing for me—I had this desire to be the greatest and to be the best French horn player. And obviously, the greatest and best French horn player can't just not show up for themselves. I set very clear boundaries that outlined what the greatest French horn player ever would be. And I stuck to those. I didn't have any other option.
When it comes to accountability of their own goals or of success, becoming wealthy or happy—people mostly need to learn that accountability isn't fun. Accountability is literally number one. Without accountability, without my instructor, without my deadline, and without my own personal standard that no matter what I will be successful—without that accountability consistently every day all the time, I would not have been successful.
It wasn't easy. There were many times that I told my instructor that I hated him. There were many times that I said, "Well, I'm not the greatest, so I can just back out now." There were so many times where I thought about changing the recital or changing the piece of the recital, changing the end date, changing the deadline, changing everything about it.
People in business and in life often want to push off the accountability part. And I get it. It's so hard for so many people to want to be held accountable to something or themselves or to somebody else. It takes so much discipline. But I had to do it in order to be successful.
That's just really step one. To identify and point out that you must be successful. You have to. You have to make a conscious decision to say to yourself, "I have to be successful. It is not an option. I don't care how foreign it looks. I have to be successful." And remember to tell yourself that all the time. You have to.
Blueprint #2: Finance and Wealth Building
In the world of music, the financial sacrifices and investments I had to make were significant. Lessons didn't cost that much money, especially because I was in college, so my instructor gave me a pretty huge discount. But when you think about it, I was paying for college strictly to learn from this instructor because he was the entire reason why I was going to play well and graduate. He was the entire reason. So I was paying for all of college for him, but then also I was paying cash as well for those lessons with him.
I think people, when it comes to success and mastery and wealth and all these things, they don't want to pay the price for it because they see price first, value later, when really it's all about: do you see the value first? I saw the value in my education with my instructor. I saw the value in buying all of these different CDs and tapes and cassettes. So the price, even though it stung and I had to work extra and I had to work a lot more, I had to pay for it.
People don't want to pay for personal coaching or one-on-one with another human being. They want to do things by themselves so much, and there's no way that I could have done what I was doing by myself. I needed to have coaching. I needed to have mentors. I needed to have someone else there with me. So you have to make the financial investment into someone who is better and who can coach you.
What other financial sacrifices did I have to make? I had to work extra long in order to make myself successful financially, which doesn't typically correlate. Insert eye roll here. It doesn't correlate to work longer to make yourself successful financially at all. No, it does. In order to be successful, you typically have to work earlier hours, work later hours and such because I also had to still practice and get that time in so that I could be able to pay for my lessons, pay for my schooling, pay for all the different CDs and renting books at the library and all these things.
In order to reach mastery, you have to force yourself to have more income. As a college student, that's hard. If you make money as a college student, you want to spend it on things, and I wanted to spend it on a lot of things. So I had to make so many different financial sacrifices—how to budget my money and my income, reduce my expenses to minimal so that I could be able to pay for and afford everything I needed to.
I think a lot of people aren't willing to do those either. They're not willing to change up their entire life for success. They're not willing to change up their entire life financially for success. And if you're not willing to, then you're missing the second blueprint of success. You have to have that financial piece, that financial accountability.
Blueprint #3: Mentorship and Strategy
My instructor's teaching style was very simple. He saw in me what I didn't see in myself, and then he held me to that. He knew, as I looked at him as one of the greatest, that I could be the greatest. He knew that I could be better than him. He knew that I could play better than Yo-Yo Ma. He told me countless times, "Well, listen, you're going to be better than Yo-Yo Ma because Yo-Yo Ma's playing this on the cello. You're playing this on a different instrument." He spoke that much vision into and about me.
It was very simple. He saw massive vision in me, and he held me to that standard of that vision. That was it. I don't think his teaching style was like anything strategic at all. And that is so massive because when it comes to a coach, you have to have someone that has massive vision, that thinks big, that thinks bigger than you, that sees in you what you probably don't see in yourself just yet.
If he sees me bigger than what I see myself, then I'm guaranteed to grow. And if he never lets up on that, then I'll continue to grow bigger and bigger, and I'll become better and better. So you just have to have someone who thinks massively of you, and that's it.
When it comes to me coaching others and leading others and mentoring others, I have to do the same thing. I genuinely see those individuals as better than they are. I ask where they want to go, who they want to be, and then in that instant, I visualize them as that, and that's it. Having a mentor like that is extremely necessary.
It sucks because people all day long around you, especially whenever your identity is low, they're going to try and pull you down. They're going to try and literally verbatim tell you, "Come back down to reality. Come back down to where I am." But when you're trying to be successful, you have to do things that you've never done before, which includes being someone that you've never been before and seeing yourself as someone that you've never seen yourself as before.
As far as Yo-Yo Ma's example, my strategy was to learn everything about Yo-Yo Ma, learn everything about Bach. I even learned everything about the cello, so that way I could obsess over it and strategize to become better at everything surrounding Yo-Yo Ma. Everything surrounding the Bach cello suites.
For people trying to build wealth, freedom, or skill, what do they need to know about learning from those who've already mastered what they're just starting? The people who have come before you, in order to become successful or master what they have mastered, you must be willing to go through all of the things that they went through.
I don't know what Yo-Yo Ma went through in order to become a master at what he has done, in order to become a master at the Bach Cello Suites. I don't know what he went through. But if I want to be successful and I'm looking after him, I have to be willing to accept whatever struggles that he did that I cannot see.
Every person who wants to build wealth and success has to be willing to go through the unforeseen, untold stories or events that the successful person has gone through. Obviously, they can't see it. So they can't see what they went through. So they just have to commit to it. And once they commit to it and they actually go through it and they come out on the other side ahead, only then will they be successful.
Blueprint #4: Leadership and Motivation
At my lowest points—when it was hard to stay motivated or when the goal felt too overwhelming—what kept me going? I think it was the fact that I told a lot of my other French horn player friends that I was taking on such a feat. I told a lot of my friends that I was going to be doing the cello suites, and they thought I was crazy. They thought my instructor was crazy. But I told them, and they were witnesses to my commitment.
I also made huge announcements of my recital to so many people. Even previous orchestras that I had been a part of, previous friends that I hadn't talked to in a while because I wanted them to be able to come. And I think because I committed to it, and I also told every person in my life, that's what kept me going when motivation faded.
Even though I could quit any moment and just let that live with me, the fact that I told everybody means that every single time I looked at someone who I told that I was going to do this, every time I looked at them, I was going to think about the fact that I didn't succeed. And I think that pain motivated me more than the motivation to just be good. I think it was the pain of being the same person, being the same French horn player, being the same basic identity of a person of what I was—that pain of being the same after I told everyone is what motivated me most to change, to improve, and to do what I needed to do.
I think the truth about leadership is that my leaders—my instructor, my friends—I might not have seen them as my specific leaders. And they might not see themselves as that, but just the qualities that they have—human understanding, intelligence, ethics—those things are what push you. Your friends can be such great leaders. My instructor was such a great leader.
When it comes to self-leadership, as an individual, you are learning how to lead yourself, especially when you're going through such a major feat or major challenge. You have to lead yourself. People don't understand that they have to be their own leader. They have to be their own leader in their path to success. You can't wait for someone else to lead you. You can't wait for yourself to get motivated. You have to be the person who leads yourself.
You need to have tact for yourself. You need to be unselfish for yourself. You need to be courageous for yourself. You need to have good judgment for yourself. And you have to learn to lead yourself before you can lead others and lead leaders.
Musicians are some of the best self-leaders because when they have a massive feat, there's no team. Even though you might be in a band, you might be in an orchestra, you might be in a small band, you might be in a rock band, you might be in a drum line, it does not matter at all if you're not leading yourself first. And so musicians are some of the best self-leaders because they understand that.
Blueprint #5: Ownership and Entrepreneurship
When I look back at this entire journey—being handed a piece meant for another instrument, obsessing over Yo-Yo Ma, investing in myself, and finishing strong—ownership meant me literally doing all of those things in order to make what I wanted happen. I did not have anyone else to force me to do those things. It had to be me by myself all along. No matter what.
I couldn't say, "My instructor didn't teach me this part. My instructor didn't help me understand how to read cello music." I couldn't say those things. I couldn't say "Yo-Yo Ma didn't jump out of the screen and tell me, 'Hey, this is how to play this part.'" I could not expect anyone to do that. So I didn't have anyone else to place any blame on if I did not succeed.
At my recital, it was going to be me, my French horn, my piece of music, and that's it. And I think that so many people forget that when they become successful—when they become successful, it's going to be them by themselves. You might get there with a team. You might get there with your history, your professors, your educators, your friends, your mentors, your books, and everything. But when it comes to you looking at yourself as a success story, it's just going to be you and that's it. Not everything in the past, not everything else. Just you.
I think so many people don't either understand that or they understand that, but they want to try and act like people are coming along with them when that's not the case. It's just going to be you by yourself. No one else will be there to hold you accountable once you're at that success level. And if you realize that, then you force yourself to do what it takes the entire way through your journey to success.
Do you want to do it all by yourself? No. Will you have to do some things by yourself? Many things. And should you also use the help of community and other people? Yes. You should. But that doesn't mean that you blame them or you allow anyone else to own your own success.
How do I help others embrace the same level of ownership when building something that doesn't look like anything they've done before? I think the biggest thing that I help others embrace is the fact that they're never new to anything. You're already great at whatever it is that you do. There are some reasons that you are great that got you to where you are today. Period. If you don't know what those things are, you need to look deep into yourself and figure that out. And then start to take that as your own level of ownership because you are greater at those things.
If it was easy or if you knew how the path would look, then you would already be there. If you already knew what it took, if you already knew what the path was going to look like, you would already be successful. So if you think that success is going to be easy, you're wrong because you have to learn a whole different language. You have to learn a whole different language of success. Learn a whole different language of happiness. Learn a whole different language of wealth.
I help these people understand the same thing that I understood about music long ago: when I set a new piece in front of me, whether it's a completely foreign piece or just a simple and easy one, I realize I've played all these notes before. I just played them in a different pattern. That's literally it. Some notes, I had to hold longer. Some notes, I hold less. Some notes, I've not hit as often. And some notes, I hit more than anything else. But regardless, I'm never new to anything as a musician.
You're never new to any piece of music. Same exact thing with your own ownership. You're never new to anything. So just because it looks like you've never done it before, you have. It's just these notes in a different way. And I dare you to find similarities. I dare you to find similarities in your life, in your other endeavors, in your other opportunities, your other businesses, your other whatever it is. I dare you to find other comparisons and similarities.
Final Reflection: How Far Are You Willing to Go for Mastery?
Now that you've read my story—pause for a second. Really pause. Ask yourself: Are you obsessing over success the way a musician obsesses over a performance? Are you breaking your big goal into small, daily movements like I did with Yo-Yo Ma's performance? Are you holding yourself accountable the way a musician holds themselves to the tempo, the breath, the silence?
If not—this is your moment. Success should look foreign at first. If it feels familiar, it's probably not greatness you're chasing—it's comfort. And comfort never made anyone world-class.
Start here: Listen to the first 10 minutes of Yo-Yo Ma's Bach Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major performance. Don't just listen. Study. Notice the way he's introduced. Feel the silence before the first note. Let it feel foreign. Because that's exactly how your dream should look right now if it's big enough.
Part 4: The Sound of Success – A Guided Breakdown of the Bach Cello Suites
The Introduction: Pressure, Identity, and the Weight of Mastery (0:00–3:00)
Before Yo-Yo Ma even touches the cello, there's a pause—an introduction. Someone steps up to the mic and introduces him with reverence. But listen carefully: The person who introduces Yo-Yo Ma... was introduced themselves. That's the level of respect we're talking about.
He wasn't the opening act. He wasn't squeezed in the middle. He was the grand finale of an entire weeklong music festival. The closer. The one everyone came to see. When I was obsessing over this performance in college, that part alone hit me hard. I used to think: "Could I ever carry that much weight? Could I ever be so excellent that the whole room waits for me to lead them?" I wasn't sure back then—but I knew I wanted to try.
Then the announcer says something else. He tells the audience that Yo-Yo Ma will be playing all six Bach Cello Suites... from memory... solo... straight through. No music. No breaks until deep into the performance. And I realized something: Success isn't just about talent. It's about endurance. Endurance to rehearse when no one's watching. Endurance to perform under pressure. Endurance to be the one everyone expects something from—and still deliver. That's what musicians do. That's what success demands.
And the announcer says something that gave me chills every time I heard it: "A single cello... conjuring the illusion that it can conquer the world." When I heard that, I didn't hear "cello." I heard "French horn." I heard "young Black man." I heard "solo creative trying to build a life no one around him understands." That became my obsession. Not just to finish the piece—but to one day be introduced like that. To be described like that. To lead like that.
So as you listen to those first 3 minutes, ask yourself: Who are you becoming that one day needs to be introduced? Are you rehearsing for that moment, or avoiding it? Are you building the endurance to perform straight through, or hoping to get by with breaks and shortcuts? Because mastery doesn't begin with applause. It begins with pressure—and choosing to own it.
The First Movement: Obsession, Emotion, and Adaptation (3:00–6:00)
Start at the beginning of the piece here!
The first few notes of the performance hit fast. Not rushed. Not frantic. But immediate. There's no warm-up. No easing in. Just stillness... then impact. And that's what mastery often looks like. You rehearse in silence so that when it's time to begin—you begin with conviction.
I remember listening to this movement over and over again, just absorbing the weight of those opening notes. The low, resonant start... the high phrase that glides in with precision... the tension that builds immediately. And I used to think: "I'll never be able to play like that." Until I did. Not perfectly. Not identically. But with my own voice. My own limitations. And my own version of greatness.
Because see—French horn can't do what a cello does. It can't play two notes at once. But that didn't stop me. I learned to manipulate. To adapt. To figure it out anyway. That's what success is. It's not replicating the tool. It's mastering the technique.
I started listening to how Yo-Yo Ma would play the same phrase five different ways. One version would be lighter. Another heavier. One slightly more legato. Another tighter. Each time—intentional. Measured. Controlled. And that's when it clicked: Success isn't just about the big moments. It's in the micro-decisions. The rhythm. The energy. The way you breathe between movements. And it's the same in business, in speaking, in writing, in finance, in leadership.
When I study successful people in finance or business, I don't just read their books—I study what they leave out. I track how they behave in public. What they order at dinner. Who they invite to the table. Because if you want greatness, you can't just learn the notes. You have to become obsessed with the way mastery moves.
Whatever you do—don't let this story just inspire you. Let it activate you. Then take your next step:
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Because the greatest musicians don't just practice—they obsess. And now, so should you.
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