25 “No’s” Away from Your Dream

Diana Webster
Sep 6, 2018 · 3 min read

Dave Meltzer said in a recent podcast on Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory network that we are 25 “no’s” away from achieving our dreams. So after we hear the 1st “no” we should get really excited because it means we’re 24 “no’s” getting closer to our goal.

Wow. This kind of hit me right in the forehead. It made me wonder how many times I’ve let a “no” stop me when “yes” would have been waiting behind the next door. I can remember one time specifically.

“person in chrome mask and pullover hoodie behind clear glass wall” by Alex Iby on Unsplash

It was 1990, I think. I can’t go back and check my email to confirm. LOL. I was writing music using a drum machine and singing into a tape recorder. There were several girls I knew from work and another girl who was a singer in a band already and we had an idea to start a girl group. I came up with “Sauvage” as the group name because one of the girls was French Canadian and also because it sounded bad ass. We’d always go shopping on Melrose Avenue to find cool, funky, and hip rock-star clothes together. That was the time of Bon Jovi cowboy hats and ripped jeans. Well, we thought we were pretty damn hot and to tell the truth, we were quite attractive.

“red LED Melrose wall decor” by Anastasia Dulgier on Unsplash

So my mental image was that we were 3 hotties singing pop songs and looking and sounding tres sexy. MTV videos and all. I came up with a fun song that talked about a road trip with our boyfriends to New York where they played with their band on a television show. Rock and roll was our lifestyle and we could make that work for our brand.

“man holding pole with light while band having jam session” by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

But then one of the boyfriends said to me, “Girl groups are out. Nobody’s doing girl groups.” So I took his word as gospel because he was a “real” musician while I was a wannabe. My self-doubt was so easily manipulated that I let my idea simply be poo pah’ed by one person.

Who knows if “Sauvage” would have really gotten any traction. But it wasn’t very long after this that one of the biggest girl groups that ever rocked the world showed up, “The Spice Girls.” We went on to form another rock band but I’ve always wondered if maybe, just maybe “Sauvage”could have gone somewhere.

“grayscale photography of man holding guitar case standing infront of train” by Julia Giacomini on Unsplash

Maybe if I just had believed in my self and hadn’t stopped after that one measly “no.”

Upshots:

Take every expert opinion with a grain of salt.

It sucks to look back and wonder so just go for it.

Let your new mantra be “25.” Or “200.” Or whatever it takes.

Diana Webster is an expert on human behavior. But only her own. She wants to help the world laugh more, stress less, and live in joy and kindness.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade