Delaney & Haley: Challenges create our tomorrows

Struggling artists often have tales to tell, which help explain how they survive the tough times.  You may even ask struggling artists "how are things?" Some of those people will admit, "why change, when we feel good about ourselves and seem convinced everything seems to be going so well? Stand back and recognize which skills they develop which strengthen their resolve.  Learn to sense that those challenges we face define who we are and ultimately create our tomorrows.

Consider Joe Delaney, a veteran painter from Knoxville, Tennessee.  In his early painting days, he often lacked food money.  Yet, somehow, he developed clever strategies to get by.  He’d visit a neighborhood butcher who would offer him big bones with morsels of meat.  The nearby grocer donated wilted vegetables. That’s all Joe needed to make down-home soup to focus again on his painting.  Whenever he felt he needed stuff, he developed a knack for getting it.  This nurtured his incredible persistence in other areas of his life including, promoting his work.

Then why not recall a handsome young singer who ran a struggling restaurant? It was said that if a customer ordered steak, this singer would dash to a supermarket across the street to buy one. In fact, the kitchen fridge was rarely filled longer than the time it took customers to order and get served their meals. This restauranteur was Harry Belafonte. His singing career reminds us that making sacrifices and living creatively enables anyone to keep working at realizing dreams.  He sang as he cooked and clients began to return to his restaurant for more than the food. 

And who could forget the difficult life of a writer? Alex Haley is one author who reminds us a big difference exists between saying you'll be a writer and dedicating yourself to writing.  He left the coast guard to set himself up in a room with a typewriter.  It took a while before he was able to support himself. During his toughest times, he was offered a chance to get back into the coast guard which would've enabled him to write part-time.  But, he turned that down.  In his mind, that woul'dve been a cop-out.  He was dedicated to writing full-time. He accepted flack from people who thought he was better than that.  Almost 17 years after leaving the coast guard, Haley published Roots.  His life is a testament to the value of courage and persistence and other desirable qualities it takes to stay the course.