If you want to be a singer, you've got to concentrate on it twenty-four hours a day. You can't be a well driller, too. You've got to concentrate on the business of entertaining and writing songs. Always think different from the next person. Don't ever do a song as you heard somebody else do it.
Interpretation
Success in any field requires total focus and originality.
Otis Redding emphasizes the importance of dedication and unique creativity in pursuing a career in music. By highlighting that one must fully commit to their passion for singing and songwriting, he suggests that trying to balance multiple careers or imitating others will hinder true success in the industry.
In practice
During a motivational speech at a music school about the importance of originality.
As I was growing up, I did a lot of talent shows. I won fifteen Sunday nights straight in a series of talent shows in Macon. I showed up the sixteenth night, and they wouldn't let me go on any more. Whatever success I had was through the help of the good Lord.
Once the festival achieved a certain level of notoriety, then people began to come here with agendas that were not the same as ours. We can't do anything about that. We can't control that.
When beginning your entrepreneurial journey, acknowledge that you become a product of the five people you spend the most time with. So choose your company wisely.
Standing on that platform, I said a silent prayer. I thanked God for giving me the strength and the opportunity to come back, to play basketball again, and to be part of that whole magnificent Olympic experience. It's a memory I will always cherish.
I’m proud to be Japanese and I wanted my country to succeed. I believed my system was a way that could help us become a modern industrial nation. That is why I had no problem with sharing it with other Japanese companies, even my biggest competitors.
The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do, well.
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
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