The Senior Citizen’s Body

My 18 year-old son, Jay and I attended the Paul McCartney concert, the last ever at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park (the site of The Beatles’ last public performance), on August 14th. We were stunned by the energy and affability of the 72 year-old McCartney.

His musicianship aside, McCartney stands out as one of music’s most prolific composers, arrangers, and lyricists.

A significant body of work

• McCartney’s personal and joint authorship of songs numbers approximately 600
• He is in the Guinness Book of World Records with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million singles
• In one of his first solo recordings following The Beatles’ breakup in 1970, Paul played all the instruments and did all the vocal tracks on “Maybe I’m Amazed,” the song he wrote for his wife, Linda
• At 72, his voice is clearly McCartney and no one else in his age group compares

Opinions are like assholes, everybody’s got one

When I hear others criticize McCartney for simply being 72, I think of the significant body of work and wonder if they, too, have one? A family member remarked to me that she didn’t attend his concert because “Paul can’t sing anymore.”

Yeah..no. Not only can he still sing, but compared to any 60+ singer out there, his voice still occupies incredible range.

Are you working on a significant body of work?

I think about my own -minuscule by comparison-body of work, and know beyond any uncertainty that I haven’t done what McCartney does; work on my craft every single day.

I think of others I know, either online or in person, that are working on their growing body of work. I think of Joshua Fields Milburn and Ryan Nicodemas of The Minimalists; of Tammy Strobel of RowdyKittens; of Colin Wright, Chris Gullebeau, Leo Babauta, and others. Each of these writers works on their craft every day.

Not all are millionaires with fortunes like McCartney, but each -through their body of work- are producing enough revenue to live life on their own terms. That should be my aim and yours, too. Our focus should be on building the body of work that will result in the revenue we need.

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