I started out to be a person on the street, just like everybody else. I didn't start out to be a singer. But I got sort of swept up in this singing thing, and after I got involved in it it got really important to me if I was good or not.
Interpretation
Janis Joplin reflects on her unexpected journey to stardom and the importance of self-improvement.
In this quote, Janis Joplin shares her humble beginnings and how her passion for singing evolved from a casual interest into a significant part of her identity. It illustrates the idea that success can often come unexpectedly and how one's dedication to mastery can become a central pursuit in life.
In practice
In a motivational speech to students about pursuing their dreams and passions.
I gotta go on doin' it the way I see it...I got no choice but to take it like I see it. I'm here to have a party while I'm on this earth...I'm gettin' it now, today. I don't even know where I'm gonna be twenty years from now, so I'm just gonna keep on rockin', cause if I start saving up bits and pieces of me...man, there ain't gonna be nothing left for Janis.
When I sing, I feel like when you're first in love. It's more than sex. It's that point two people can get to they call love, when you really touch someone for the first time, but it's gigantic, multiplied by the whole audience. I feel chills.
Like most girls I'm always really self-conscious about do I look fat, if my legs are short, if I'm weird shaped, but when I go on stage, man, it never occurs to me. I think I look beautiful.
I won't quit to become someone's old lady.
Audiences like their blues singers to be miserable.
You can feel all things at once, so why not wear all things at once?
This is a perverse thing, personally, but I would rather be in the cycle where people are underestimating us. It gives us latitude to go out and make big bets that excite and amaze people.
Becoming rich isn't as much about getting rich financially as about whom you become, in character and mind, to get rich.
If you're glued together right and honorable, you will succeed. Get in there and get rid of stupidities and avoid bad people. Try teaching that to your grandchildren. The best way is by example. Fix yourself.
You don't have to specialize - do everything that you love and then, at some time, the future will come together for you in some form.
If you're going to play at all, you're out to win. Baseball, board games, playing Jeopardy, I hate to lose.
To double your net worth, double your self-worth. Because you will never exceed the height of your self-image.
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